


Unhealthy Escapism

by ButterscotchCookiesAndBroccoliBois



Series: Unhealthy Escapism Extended Universe [1]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Alphyne - Mentioned, Alternate Universe - Dreamtale (Undertale), Alternate Universe - Horrorswap (Undertale), Alternate Universe - Underfell (Undertale), Alternate Universe - Underswap (Undertale), Alternate Universe - Undertale Multiverse | UTMV (Undertale), Angst, Apple - Freeform, Aromantic, Aromantic Dream (Undertale), Author Is Sleep Deprived, Can't believe I forgot that, Card Games, Cleaning, Cooking, Dead Zone - Freeform, Dinner, Dissociation, Dream i love you thats why i must hurt you, Dream is Not Okay, Dream-Centric, Explosions, Explosives, Forced God Of Destruction Errortale Sans (Undertale), Gen, Horror curses a lot, Hurt/Comfort, I wasnt joking about Dream not being okay, I'm Bad At Summaries, I'm Bad At Tagging, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Injury, Introspection, Kidnapping, Libraries, M/M, Multiverse, My First Fanfic, Ngl Dream's probably gonna end up pretty ooc by the end of this, Nightmare is Not Okay, Not Canon Compliant, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Precious Bean Child, Reboot, Self-Harm, Shenanigans, Spaghetti-Freeform, Suicidal Ideation, The Author Regrets Nothing, There's probably too many tags but my brain saysi need to be thorough, Threats, Trauma, Underwisdom, Yandere Papyrus (Undertale), carving, cursing, derealisation, glass, maybe? - Freeform, mentioned - Freeform, monster energy, only mentioned tho
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-14 05:21:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 45
Words: 51,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28540233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ButterscotchCookiesAndBroccoliBois/pseuds/ButterscotchCookiesAndBroccoliBois
Summary: After being kidnapped by Nightmare's gang, Dream finds a library. Strangeness ensues.
Relationships: Dream (Undertale) & Cross (Undertale), Dream (Undertale) & Dust (Undertale), Dream (Undertale) & Horror (Undertale), Dream (Undertale) & Killer (Undertale), Dream (Undertale) & Nightmare's gang (Undertale), Dream (Undertle) & Horror (Undertale), Nightmare (Undertale) & Dream (Undertale), Reaper (Undertale)/Geno (Undertale) - mentioned
Series: Unhealthy Escapism Extended Universe [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2159070
Comments: 287
Kudos: 212





	1. A Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time writing a fic so I apologise if it isn't that good. Please point out any mistakes I make in writing this.
> 
> This was originally going to be a one shot, but then I got distracted in the middle of writing and ended up world-building and changing the original idea up a bit XD
> 
> Hope you enjoy ^-^🍊

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everything must start somewhere, this just happens to start with a kidnapping.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is mostly just set up for the rest of what I want to write XD🍊

Dream... was bored.

**********

A month had passed since the Dark Sanses had kidnapped him mid-battle. Up until this point he had been held in a magic-dampening cell in their dungeon. The magic-dampening also blocked any positive energy from getting to him. This meant that he was forced to live off the small reserve of positive energy his body stored, which was already somewhat depleted from the earlier battle.

By this point he had been drained of nearly all his reserves and was almost at the point of starvation. His aura had shut down a week prior as his body began to conserve resources. He was edging the stage of feeling his own positivity shut down as his body’s last ditch effort to stay alive when, for the first time since he had been brought down there, Dream saw the door open.

From behind the door came Killer. As the homicidal skeleton walked towards him, the positive guardian moved as far away from him as he could.

Removing the restraints around Dream’s wrists and ankles, Killer spoke to him. “Calm your ass down, Nightmare says that you should be weak enough by now that you won't be a threat, so he's decided to let you out for now. No funny business though, if you decide to go fucking about with shit you're going straight back in here. Clear?”

“Clear.”

With a grunt of acknowledgement, Killer turned around and jerked his head for Dream to follow. They walked in silence until the younger stopped outside a door.

“This is your room. The kitchen is down the corridor to the left, then right, then down the stairs and through the living room. You'll pass the bathroom in the corridor you turn right for. Got that?” Killer explained blandly.

“Yep.” Dream replied.

“Right then,” Killer turned and began walking away, “See ya.”

Too exhausted to take anything in, Dream simply made a beeline for the bed, flopping down on it. He resolved to get an actual look at his room tomorrow, before drifting off.

**********

Looking around the room he was given, Dream shivered in disgust. A thick layer of dust coated everything and there were cobwebs everywhere. From the looks of things, it seemed like this room hadn't even been entered since it was first set up who knows how long ago.

With a sigh Dream went to find cleaning supplies. He refused to stay in a room as filthy as that for any length of time if he could help it.

And so, that was why he spent the next three weeks cleaning.

After awkwardly asking Dust where to find the cleaning supplies he made it his mission to make the room as clean as physically possible.

It took him a fortnight of hard work to clean his room in his weakened state. It was particularly challenging since he kept forgetting to eat. He would normally be able to feed off the positivity of whatever AU he was in, but with seemingly only five people in whatever AU this was, there was nowhere near enough to keep him going.

He then spent a week cleaning the bathroom seeing as it was also in a right state. It was easier to clean than his room though, since, as far as Dream could tell, someone had at the very least made some sort of effort to clean it at some stage.

The following week was spent just wandering around the castle, trying not to get lost in the twisting, maze-like corridors and looking for something more interesting to do.

And then he found the library.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. Have a brilliant day ^-^🍊


	2. A Discovery

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream looks around the library. An old memory resurfaces.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope that you enjoy this chapter. If I make any mistakes please tell me, I'd love to hear if anyone has anything to say about my fic. Yes, I am just as surprised as you are that I managed to get the next chapter out so soon.
> 
> Fun fact:  
> The entire fic so far has exclusively been written after midnight lmfao🍊

Dream was… excited.

**********

Looking around, Dream felt dwarfed by the library. There were ladders at the end of every bookcase, just so that you could reach the books on the dizzyingly high top shelves.

The beauty of such an expanse of knowledge left Dream in absolute awe.

The younger twin chuckled to himself. ‘Seems like no matter how much everything changed, Nightmare will always love reading.’

Walking cautiously towards the nearest shelf he saw what appeared to be a small golden tag. Bending down to get a better look the golden eyed skeleton read the intricate writing etched into it aloud to himself.

“Underfell angst? What does this have to do with Red’s AU?”

In search of what he hoped would leave him with more answers than questions, he slowly removed a book from a nearby shelf. Flipping it over in his hands, he read over what appeared to be a blurb and specifics as to what concepts could be present in the book.

‘Sibling angst, hurt/comfort, pre-reset, what in the Underhell is this on about? And why is it in the Dark Sans’ castle of all places?’

Moving to another bookcase, Dream checked the tag. It said Underswap this time. Reaching out for another book, the Star Sans checked the back of this one too. It had the same layout as the last. He moved to a new bookcase again and again and again, checking the back of each book he picked up.

In the dead silent library, the noise of Dream’s rushed footsteps was the only sound to be heard.

After a few minutes of frantic movement, the starry eyed skeleton plonked himself down on the wooden floor boards between Underworld and Circustale bookshelves. Flicking through his memories he tried to recall coming across anything to do with a library full of AUs. There was a nagging feeling in the back of his mind that he had heard of something like this before, yet every time he came close to grabbing hold of the memory it slipped away.

Suddenly Dream recalled something Ink had told him once in the Doodlesphere, a long time ago now.

**********

_It was a relatively peaceful day. The Dark Sanses and Error had been quiet the last two days and it seemed like today was going to follow suit. In the absence of anything immediately important to do Dream had decided to go to the Doodlesphere to bother Ink as he was creating._

_All had been going well so far, but the smaller skeleton had yet to draw more than an irritated sigh or a fond chuckle from the other. Deciding that more drastic measures were necessary, he snuck up behind the creator, hands at the ready, and pounced._

_Laughing uncontrollably and attempting to wriggle out from his attacker's clutches. “Stop! Stop!” Ink called out. “Never!” Dream responded playfully._

_“What if I told you an old story?”_

_“What kind?”_

_“A story about one of the early AUs.”_

_This made the guardian perk up. Despite being centuries old, he missed out on a lot of what was going on in the Multiverse’s earlier years. Being trapped in a stone prison for five hundred years tends to do that to a person._

_“Deal!”_

_Dream sat back expectantly, excited to hear the little sliver of history._

_Sitting up from where he was knocked down Ink began._

_“Back when the Multiverse consisted of only a few AUs there was one small one that now stands desolate. This AU was known as Underwisdom. In this world knowledge really was power. Everything in that AU was centred around gaining knowledge, making new discoveries, inventing things for the betterment of everyone. However, even with all the progress, there was one thing that was forgotten.”_

_“What was it?”_

_“It was all the people left behind, in all the people at the top of society focused only on their innovation and progress. While those with the funds to get better education excelled in life, anyone who was unable to do the same was left behind living paycheck-to-paycheck, struggling to make sure there was even food to put on the table the next day._

_“As the gap between these two groups widened, those who suffered under the upper classes' cruel thumb grew restless. It all culminated when the colleges announced that there would be another rise in the cost of tuition. This sparked outrage in the lower class who was already almost entirely priced out of any sort of access. To raise the prices again was like a slap in the face to them._

_“It was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Riots started up everywhere. Colleges and universities were burnt down along with the houses of many prominent figures. Knowledge might be power, but faced with that many furious people they didn't stand a chance. There were many deaths on either side. The fires began to spread quickly engulfing everything in its inferno, throwing massive clouds of smoke up into the air._

_“By the end of the week close to the whole universe was destroyed and any survivors died soon after. The only thing left standing in the entire hellscape was a castle in the centre of the small world, formerly occupied by the Dreemurrs, who were entrusted with its protection. Sadly, both Dreemurrs died in the chaos, but the castle survived._

_“This castle is important for one reason and one reason alone. It contains the Library Of AUs. Within the castle's wall lies the place where every universe’s story is told. Good or bad. Beautiful or ugly. Dead, alive or even deleted. That library holds a record of every AU that has ever existed. I think I even visited it a few times before its fall if I'm remembering correctly. I don't visit it anymore though since it partially closed off after its collapse, so while it's technically still accessible I just don't have the patience required to get its access point fully functional again.”_

_“That's so cool! I'm surprised you still remember it when you can't even remember what you had for breakfast though.”_

_“Hey, I'm not quite that bad yet.”_

_“Well then what did you have for breakfast?”_

_“A hotdog.”_

_And thus began a lengthy conversation about what is and is not a breakfast food that lasted the rest of the day. They even managed to rope Blueberry into it at some point._

**********

Dream sighed contentedly at the memory. It was a good memory from before Ink’s memory problems began to become significant.

Shaking off the bittersweet reminiscence, he focused on the fact that he was here, in the library Ink spoke of so long ago. The sudden excitement at the realisation that he could read about so many different worlds almost overwhelmed him.

Dream skipped over to the Underswap fluff section, and eagerly pulled out a book.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed. Have a fantabulous day ^-^🍊


	3. A Chance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream thinkse Alphyne is adorable, change my mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoy this chapter. I'm still keeping on trend withe the whole writing everything after midnight thing lol🍊

Dream was… ecstatic.

**********

That night, as he lay down in bed trying to fall asleep, Dream mentally looked back through the stories he had read earlier in the day. He thought of the sweet sibling moments and the loyal friendships. The conflicts and their resolutions.

The calm processing of all of the information slowly lulled Dream into a peaceful sleep.

**********

The next day Dream was back in the library. To the guardian, these world's were fascinating. There was so much potential. Sure, he watched the AUs as their inhabitants went about their daily lives from time to time, but that was nowhere near the sheer intensity of being absorbed into the story and feeling as though you are experiencing everything as if it were you.

Putting down the book he had just finished reading Dream looked around for a new one. Briefly, he looked towards the angstier stories, but turned away before he could be tempted into reading one.

As the Guardian of Positivity, Dream had to stay constantly positive. His emotions influenced the Multiverse's emotions. This meant that he had to force himself to stay positive lest the fluctuation cause the more negative worlds’ limited positivity to flicker out. By that point, the only way that the inhabitants of such an AU world no longer be able to feel positive unless Dream entered the world, forcibly bringing positivity along with him, which is about as fun as it sounds. Nightmare didn't really have to worry about this so much because there was almost always a significant amount of negativity in any given AU, the lucky bastard. 

Shaking his head, Dream snapped out of his thoughts and turned his mind away from things that were simply too far from his grasp. Reaching for a book on Outertale Alphyne fluff, the golden twin instead focused on the cute cuddling he was about to witness.

**********

With the perfect thing to stave off the boredom, Dream settled into a new routine. He would wake up, head to the library and proceed to read until nightfall, when he would head to bed and fall asleep mulling over what he had read that day.

This lasted for about three days before his brother realised that he was skipping meals. Between not wanting to leave his new found treasure trove and being concerned about what would be in his food, the younger sibling had been forgoing meals. Aware of the fact that the other needed to eat since he was still weak from the forced separation from his usual energy source not too long ago, Nightmare began sending a different member of the gang over to Dream once a day to make sure he didn't starve himself to death.

Not wanting to give his brother any reason to punish him, the shorter sibling brought any cutlery from his meal back to the kitchen and quickly washed them up, before scurrying back to the library.

It was on one one of these quick trips that Dream over heard Horror complaining about something to Cross. He decided to listen in on the off chance one of them says something that could eventually help him escape.

“Ugh, I hate having to wear these stupid things. They always rub my wrist raw when I have it on.”

Dust chuckled, “So you would rather be stuck if anything happened while we were out.”

“Well, no, but the teleporter is still really uncomfortable to have on.”

“So, just be glad that we're disconnected enough from the rest of the Multiuniverse that we don't have to worry about people randomly showing up.”

“I suppose. Doesn't mean I have to like it.”

Dream tuned out the rest of their conversation, too overwhelmed to pay attention any longer. The AU was disconnected from the Multiverse still.  _ He _ was disconnected from the Multiverse.

He was finally free to experience all of his emotions, not just the ones that kept the Multiverse in balance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. I hope you have a superb day ^-^🍊


	4. A Feeling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream decides to make use of what he's found out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really tired, but I hope you enjoy this. Also massive thank you to everyone who's left kudos or a comment, they mean a lot to me and help me stay motivated🍊

Dream was… fascinated.

**********

Dream couldn't believe it. After all this time he could finally feel what he wanted. No more having to push away negativity. No more pretending like he wants to be happy or helpful or anything like that anymore.

Rushing to finish up the dishes, he couldn't help but imagine all the different kinds of books he could delve into. The more meaningful ones with more complex plot points. The sadder ones with the painful misunderstandings. A whole new world was opening up to the golden guardian.

Not to say he didn't enjoy the purely happy stories, he did, it's just that without any substantial conflict, it was harder for them to give characters fuller, more impactful arcs.

Putting the last thing away, Dream hurried back to the library. He had finished up his last book before leaving, so he headed straight towards the sections containing angst. Looking around he spotted an interesting story.

“‘Flowey Is Not a Good Life Coach’ huh. Well let's see what this is like.”

Eagerly opening the book, Dream began to read the story of this world's Flowey ‘training’ this world's Papyrus to join the Royal Guard. It was both exciting and devastating to the small skeleton to read about what was happening with Papyrus and how it affected him.

It was thrilling to him to experience all these emotions he hadn't been able to allow himself to feel in centuries. It was a rush unlike any other, helped along by the fact that he got so sucked into stories that it felt as though he were really there. Seeing what the characters saw so vividly that it was almost like he could reach out and instead of feeling the still air of the library, he would feel the chilled air of Snowdin town.

It felt like no time had passed before night fell and the light from the windows grew so dim that he could barely even read what was on the page. Resigning himself to returning to the book again the next day Dream took a piece of loose paper and left it in between the pages where he had left off, the same way he had seen Nightmare do so many times before.

And with that bittersweet thought, the golden twin headed to bed. It took a while to fall asleep and as he laid there waiting for sleep to take him, he reminisced over the past when Nightmare was uncorrupted and things were simpler.

No matter how much he wished he could go back and change things, Dream knew he couldn't. The only thing that he could do now was regret not seeing how poorly the villagers treated his brother. They weren't exactly the nicest to him, but they were respectful to him more often than not.

And so, with the nostalgic tears of someone grieving over what has been lost and what could have been, Dream slipped slowly into a peaceful slumber.

**********

Awakening from some of the best sleep he had gotten in a long time, Dream grinned to himself. He was excited to see what would happen next with Papyrus and how well it would go for him.

Hopping out of bed, he quickly got ready for the day and made his way down to the library.

Picking up where he left off the last day, Dream sat down again in the deep windowsill and began to read. He only had a few chapters left when Cross walked in with the food Nightmare had tasked him with bringing. It just so happened that Cross had walked in while Papyrus was feeling immensely betrayed, meaning that dream was on the verge of tears.

**********

Cross walked forward to where Dream’s usual reading spot was located, dragging his feet as he went. It was supposed to be Killer’s turn, but he had managed to convince Nightmare to let him go with the other two on a food run, leaving Cross behind to do his job for him.

When he noticed Dream wasn't eating, Nightmare told the gang that if they didn't see Dream get something to eat that day, one of them had to bring him something so that his “idiot brother” wouldn't starve himself to death.

‘At least I won't have to do it later in the week.’ Cross thought to himself.

As he reached Dream he saw something completely unexpected. Every other time one of the gang brought the positive guardian something to eat he was always smiling happily at his book or squealing quietly at something cute, however this time was completely different.

When Cross reached Dream he saw not a cheerful grin on his face, but teary, heartbroken eyes. The stark contrast left him shaken. Cautiously approaching the other skeleton, he cleared his throat to let the other know he was there.

No response.

“Dream?” he said in another attempt to get the attention of the guardian.

Still no response.

“Dream?” he repeated, louder this time.

Nothing.

Shaking the golden eyed skeleton slightly, Cross repeated himself a final time. Dream startled at the contact and looked up at Cross.

“What is it?” he asked cheerfully, the sudden change in demeanour throwing Cross off.

“I brought you some food.”

“Thank you.”

Um… are you okay? ‘Cause you looked like you were about to cry and it took three times calling your name to get your attention.”

“Oh yeah, I'm fine I just got really absorbed in this new book I'm reading and it got to a kinda sad part.”

“Okay? Well I'm gonna go now. Enjoy your sad book or whatever.”

“Okay, bye then.” Dream said with a laugh.

Leaving quickly, Cross tried to shake off the slightly eerie feeling of seeing someone switch between two completely opposing emotions so quickly. Suddenly he was a lot more grateful for the longer before having to bring Dream his food again.

**********

Dream watched Cross’ retreating back briefly before turning back to his book, nibbling on the sandwich that was left for him as he read. He was a little disgruntled at being disturbed at such an important moment, but as he ate he realised how hungry he had become without noticing and he was grateful to have something to eat.

He finished the sandwich half way through the next chapter. And so after he finished that chapter he made his way down to the kitchen and speedily washed the plate, before racing back to the library, unable to take his mind off of what could possibly happen next.

Dream spent the next while finishing up the book. He was so happy to have read it, it was incredible. Taking his piece of paper out of the back of the book, he noticed something he didn't remember seeing in any of the books before.

It was a little section innocently titled: ‘Works inspired by this one’. Beneath it was a list of what seemed to be titles of different stories and where one could find them. The yellow Star Sans, still thoroughly caught up in the story he had just finished, made his way into the maze of bookcases in search of the first book on the list.

A new ocean of possibilities and emotions was opening before Dreams eyes and he was ready to dive right in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading.
> 
> The fiction I mentioned in this chapter is 'Flowey Is Not a Good Life Coach' by unrestedjade. It is amazing and I absolutely recommend checking it out.
> 
> Link to fic: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5056333/chapters/11627629  
> (I tried to link the fic but I couldn't get it to work. If I get a chance, I'll come back and embed the link (is that how you say it?) later to make it easier to get to).
> 
> I hope you have a spectacular day ^-^🍊


	5. A Belief

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's Horror's turn to be thrown off by Dream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoy the new chapter ^-^🍊

Dream was… curious.

**********

Dreams having the time of his life. In the last week he had read about many interesting new worlds. The seer intensity of everything amazed him. The lows made the highs seem even better and the highs made the lows hurt just that much worse

Before all of this Dream always wondered about why people who were able to let themselves experience their emotions fully always seemed to be happier than those who didn't on good days, but so much worse on the bad ones. Well he has his answer now.

If the guardian was being honest, the thrill of it all made the sad bits worth it. The anger in a fight, the sadness of betrayal, the desperation to escape resets, the grief of losing a loved one. Dream hoarded all the emotions these stories unlocked in him jealously.

**********

Horror hated being the one to bring Dream food. It wasn't the same reasons as the others though, it was because the shorter skeleton never seemed to care about the food, like the fucking bastard was taking it for granted. Because of this, when it was Horror’s turn to bring the shit-stain food he never put much effort in and didn't usually bring much, just a quick sandwich and  _ maybe _ some fruit if he was in a good mood.

Today, the red eyed skeleton was decidedly not in a good mood. That morning one of the others decided to pull a prank on him and took all his left socks and hid them around the castle. Therefore all the prisoner was getting was a slim slice of cheese slapped between some bread.

Walking towards the library where the gang all knew he'd be on any given day, Horror kept his pace leisurely (why rush to bring the twerp food it's not like he gives a shit anyway). Thinking about it the captive skeleton had been acting a little strangely the last few times he had brought the fucker food and he wasn't the only one who'd noticed it, all the others had mentioned it too.

He reached the library far faster than he would have liked. Dragging his feet, he made his way over to where the happy-go-lucky nuisance’s spot was. He didn't want to spend any longer around the annoyance that he had to and was going to just drop the plate and leave, before he noticed which book it was reading.

‘Horrorswap: A Tale Of Twisting Sanity’

“What the Underhell are you reading?” Horror asked angrily.

“Oh, hi Horror. I was just reading a story I found. I met the Sans of this world a while back in the Omega Timeline and wanted to find out more about him. He doesn't talk much about himself. All I know about him from when we've talked is that Error erased his world and that he goes by Clavicle now. He's a real sweetheart, but kinda skittish. I was hoping I might find some way to help him if I knew more about him.”

“Don't you think that's, I dunno, kinda fucked up. Especially since it's a skeleton you know.”

“Not really. Not if it means that I can help them in the long run.”

As the shit looked at him with those stupid eyes, Horror resolved to just leave before its annoying attitude grated on his temper too much and he did something he'd regret. Nightmare had them all under strict orders not to physically harm his already weakened brother and the red eyed skeleton knew that if he kept talking to the rusty trombone he wouldn't be able to hold himself back.

“Fuck this, I'm not dealing with your bullshit, I'm outta here.”

And with that Horror left, resolving to just head to the training room to let his frustrations out. The thought of willingly reading about the kind of torture he was put through for so long as if it were nothing left him feeling sickened and reviled.

The training room gained a new crack cracking the wall that day.

**********

Dream watched confusedly at Horror’s sudden departure. What was so wrong with trying to find out more about a friend's history in order to help them recover from it.

Maybe it was some societal norm he missed skipping from universe to universe?

‘Meh, it's not my problem.’ Dream thought to himself, before turning back to his book with a shrug. This story was pretty interesting and he soon found himself invested in what would happen, despite the fact he already knew how it would end. He hoped this story wouldn't be as sad as the other things he had read, but in his heart he knew it was futile.

Shaking his head to focus back on the story in front of him, he began to read.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading.
> 
> Clavicle is a character I made up for this, but if I get a chance later on I might write a one shot or something of his backstory. 
> 
> I hope you have a super-duper day ^-^🍊


	6. A Frustration

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream starts a new book.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoy the chapter. I'm not back in school until February so with luck I'll be able to keep the momentum going with this (RIP my sleep schedule) XD
> 
> TW: Mentioned suicide, it only shows up in one line but still, better safe than sorry🍊

Dream was… pissed. 

**********

It only took a week for another incident to occur. It was after Dream had decided to venture into the yandere Papyrus section. It was kind of unusual, but at the same time it intrigued him. Every once in a while he'd stumble across a yandere universe. The yanderes in question had a habit of randomly causing the positivity to spike due to their weird glee whenever they killed someone or finally got their hands on their senpai.

He always left those AUs quickly, there wasn't really anything he could do during a spike. The most he could do in those AUs was give the poor senpais hope of escape, whispering the tiny amount of positivity the creators allowed him in their ear. It hurt his soul that he couldn't do any more, but it doesn't do well to dwell on such things.

Dream shuddered, trying to shake the reminders of those he couldn't help, couldn't save, from his mind. Looking back down at the stories before him, he picked one out about a world he never had the displeasure of visiting.

‘Regretti, huh? Well this looks… concerning. Let's go.” the guarantee chuckled hollowly to himself. Reading the description, it didn't look like it would be the worst thing ever, but it probably wouldn't be too fun for the poor Sans of this world. 

‘It could be worse.’ Dream supposed, ‘It wasn't long so there wasn't much time for  _ too _ much messed up shit to go down. The only way for this to turn out truly horrifying is if it got continued separately.’

**********

There was a sequel.

Not just one sequel, but two and the second one had spin offs based off of it (Dream had checked the back for sequels before starting. He didn't want to be caught off guard by the continued  _ nightmare _ that Sans was forced to experience).

The golden eyed skeleton was about a quarter of the way through ‘Spiralini(ng out of control)’ when he sensed the older twin join him in the library. His negativity seemed slightly worse than usual. The younger of the two didn't want to take any chances so he put his book down on a nearby table and turned to greet his brother.

“Hello brother.” Dream was careful not to be too positive incase it worsened the other’s mood. It was hard though, this was the first time since his initial capture that his brother had spoken to him and he was excited to finally get a chance to just talk to him, without all the fighting that had been prevalent in all their conversations since the Incident.

“Dream.” Nightmare replied coldly.

“What do you want?” the smaller twin did his best to keep his nervousness out of his voice with a more curious tone.

“You've been acting weird recently, so what the heck is going on with you?”

“I-I'm sorry brother, but I don't understand what you mean by that?” Dream tried to stay calm, but he was still weak and the thought of being thrown back in his old cell to rot hung heavy in the back of his mind, no matter how hard he tried to push it away.

“Cut the crap. The boys have been coming back from here for the last while have been complaining about you and trying their darndest to get out of bringing you food and I had no choice but to take Horror out of the rotation all together last week when he cracked a wall training. He refused to talk about it, but I know it was your fault. He only trains when he's stressed or angry and he went straight to the training room after bringing you your food.

“And another thing, you keep randomly getting really happy, then your positivity just completely drops off the map. At least when your positivity was constant it was easy to ignore, now all the constant yo-yoing is giving me a headache. So what in the good name of Toby Fox is going on?”

Dream suppressed a flinch at his twin’s sudden outburst. ‘Huh, so that's why Horror stopped coming here. Wait a second, I have to put up with his shitty control over his emotions all day, but I'm not allowed to feel how I want now that I finally have the chance!” Suddenly he was filled with anger, he had spent over a century constantly having to make himself feel happy and now he's finally able to take a break, his brother wants to take that from him. Fuck consequences, he refused to let his new found freedom to be stolen from him for the sake of someone else's comfort.

“Fuck. You.” Dream said quietly.

“Excuse me, who the Under-motherhugging-world do you think you're talking to!” the taller brother exclaimed.

“I think I'm talking to you  _ brother _ . I finally get the chance to feel whatever I fucking want after goddamn centuries of forcing myself to feel positive for the sake of others and you want me to fucking stop because it makes you uncomfortable. Well guess how I feel, brother, guess how I fucking feel. I have to put up with your mess of shit emotional control all the goddamned time. But  _ nooo _ , I'll go back to forcing myself to feel positive and all that  _ bullshit _ just for the sake of your comfort.

“You who have never had to force yourself to feel positive in the face of seeing your brother tear apart your world. You who have never had to force feelings, unable to allow yourself a chance to mourn over the loss of the only person who you ever truly felt cared about you for you and wasn't just-just using you for the positivity. You have never had to do any of that have you and you never fucking will. You who have never had to stop yourself for trying to process the bullshit that has happened to you. You who doesn't have to care about what you feel because of the  _ stupid _ balance because you chose one of the few AUs that didn't properly connect to the Multiverse as your motherfucking base.

“You who have never had to try and talk a monster down from dusting themselves. You who have never been stuck watching something horrific happen and been forced to watch, unable to do anything to help but tell the poor monster sweet nothings, hoping they won't dust themselves in the meantime if the bitchass creators allow you even that. You want to rip my freedom to feel all the things I've missed out on, simply because of a stupid little headache. I refuse to let you steal my chance to process the shit I've seen now that I finally have the chance to.”

Dream was breathing heavily. He was just filled with such… such rage as he looked at his dumbfounded twin. What, did his brother really think that the constant positivity was by  _ choice _ . What a laughable thought. No one would ever willingly be constantly positive. There was simply no way anyone would put themselves through that if they had a choice.

Subconsciously, the shorter twin wiped away at the tears that had begun to fall as he had ripped into his brother. ‘Maybe I was a little hard on hi- no he needed to hear it. I can't let him step all over me forever, sometimes you need to stand up for yourself.’

“Dream-brother I- what? What do you mean by having to stand by unable to help? And what do you mean by being used?”

Focusing back on his brother, the taller twin had moved his tentacles in close to his back. He looked shaken and so much smaller than usual. The other skeleton’s reaction confused Dream.

Why the fuck would he look so lost, hadn't he figured most of this out already?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. 
> 
> The fics I mentioned in this chapter are 'Regretti' by skeletonfricker and 'Spiralini(ng out of control)' by Lovova
> 
> Here is the link to 'Regretti' http://www.archiveofourown.org/works/5581030?view_adult=true
> 
> At the bottom of that fiction are links to both of its sequels ('Spiralini(ng out of control) and 'Caveatelli') I'd link directly, but there's no point since it's best to read the whole series from the start if you want the full context.
> 
> Also, for anyone who does decide to read them, the first two fics contain Undertum (it doesn't really come up from the third fiction onwards) so beware of that and pay attention to the tags it is a yandere Papyrus so expect yandere type stuff to come up. (It goes without saying that this series is rated Explicit) Also it is fontcest. Your mental health is important. 
> 
> With that out of the way, this really is a good book series and is well worth a read if you have any interest in yandere Papyrus. All the additions really add to the story.
> 
> Sorry for the longer than usual tag. I hope you have an excellent day ^-^🍊


	7. A Fight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream has more to say.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you like this chapter, it's a continuation from where I left off last chapter. I started writing a little later than usual so I hope that it's okay ^-^🍊

Nightmare was… confused.

**********

Nightmare couldn't believe what he was hearing. Dream had always been happy, surely this couldn't be right. It couldn't be. And even if it was, surely he would have known about it?

“I meant what I said. If the creator is shitty enough I'm not allowed to interact with an AU to try and make it happier, I'm more or less stuck as an onlooker you fucking dimwit. And of course it feels like I'm being used. My aura makes it so that any fucker close to me feels positivity. Sure it's useful  _ sometimes _ , but  _ most  _ of the time people just seem to try and get close to me to use me as their goddamn positivity supply. Don't you already know about this shit? Didn't mother tell you about it back before everything?”

The negative guardian was utterly bamboozled at what his brother was telling him. Since when did Dream have limited influence? He just couldn't understand.  _ He _ had never had issues interacting with other worlds and since they were both guardians, shouldn't they be affected by the same things? If he was honest with himself, what his brother was telling him was scaring him.

“I have no clue what you're talking about! Mother never spoke to me about anything? And how in the Underworld do the creators fit into this? I… I don't understand.”

Nightmare felt choked. Like the new all this new information was surrounding him, swallowing him up. He didn't know how to deal with it. He-he COULDN’T be wrong. If he was wrong then… then everything he's been led to believe his entire life was a lie.

“Didn't mother ever speak to you in your dreams? She always came into  _ my _ dreams to tell me about  _ my _ duty. She made sure I understood what my purpose was and the...  _ consequences _ of failing to fulfill it.” As he said the word consequences the older twin saw the younger shudder as if recalling something particularly unpleasant. “She told me what would happen, that if I put even even a fucking toe out of line I could doom the balance of the Multiverse. She fucking  _ showed _ me what would happen. It was terrifying.

“And then I had to get up and go about my day, repressing that terror. Forcing it deep, deep down. After all, you learn how to bury your emotions quickly when every motherfucking night for motherfucking  _ years _ you get the shit scared out of you by some bitch who was supposed to be your mother. By the person who was supposed to care for you more than anyone else.”

At this point there were tears streaming down Dream's face, even as he still looked so completely and utterly enraged. “She-she always told me that she loved me though. Always t-told me that she was only doing this to keep me and everyone else safe. Do you fucking know what that did to me!? Do you!? I had to try so hard everyday just to fucking keep everything together, just to keep the stupid act up. After all, you know what they say, fake it ‘til you make it. Am I right?” Dream chuckled darkly.

“And don't even get me started on the creators. How they just make whatever they want and not give a damn about who they hurt. Those bastards could care less how many people they hurt just to fulfill whatever sick and twisted fantasy crosses their mind. To them we're all just characters on a page for them to do whatever they want with. Those little shits can almost entirely block me out of AUs just so that they can hurt characters more in more violent and gruesome ways or maybe in subtler and more sinister ways. I mean don't you ever have trouble spreading negativity in certain universes? Oh who am I kidding, the creators just  _ love _ to add some negativity into their worlds. Why I bet spreading negativity is as easy as shit for you. It's not like the so-called ‘Balance’ was ever equal in the first place.”

Nightmare, who had begun backing away in the midst of his brother's angry ranting, bumped into a bookshelf and fell to the ground. He felt frantic and panicky and distressed all at once. He was shaking so hard you could hear his bones rattling.

“No. Nononononononononono no no. No, it can't be right. It can't be. Nonononononononono. No.  **NO** !”

His fingers were digging into his skull as he clutched his head. His breathing was forced and unsteady. His brother's words circled his head.

“You were always the favourite. You always had it easy. Everyone loved you. It can't be right, it CAN’T be! I-I-I-”

He cut himself off with a gasp for air. He was pushing himself backwards, curling up into a ball as he felt smaller than ever.

“You know brother,” Dream continued on in a falsely calm tone, “ my aura works like yours. It magnifies whatever the most prominent positive feeling someone is experiencing. One time I was unlucky enough to land in one of the worse Underlust copies. Let me tell you, I have never left a place faster than I did then.” The shorter brother's already forced smile somehow managed to become even more so as he grit his teeth. “Looking at it now, I'm pretty sure you were mother's favourite. Or perhaps she just fucked with the villagers so that they'd do her job for her. Fat lotta good that did in the end though, ey?”

It was the other brother’s turn to end up on the ground. Now both of them simply sat there, clutching their skulls. Nightmare softly repeating “no” to himself as he shook, while Dream cried harder than ever as he laughed an unhinged and desperate laugh. As though laughter was the only thing keeping him from having to face his own reality and if he stopped he would have to think about all that he's been through.

**********

It took a long time before the negative guardian finally snapped out of his panicked state. Taking in his surroundings, he saw Dream on the ground in front of him. He vaguely remembered his brother joining him on the hard wooden floor. He was able to distantly recall someone laughing, but whoever was laughing seemed to have stopped a long time ago.

Turning back around to his brother, he was once again shaken by what he saw.

The usually bright and bubbly twin looked blank and empty. It reminded him of a ragdoll that had been thrown aside. In fact, Nightmare would almost have thought he was asleep if not for the faintly shining eyelights, hidden deep within his brother's sockets. The stark contrast was unsettling.

Wanting to do something, anything, to stop his brother from looking so vacant, he moved towards him. First, he tried calling Dream’s name. When that failed, he tried shaking Dream. Yet again he was unable to solicit a reaction from the other skeleton.

Unsure of what to try next he remembered his brother mentioning the stories helping him. At least he thought so, the whole argument was just a blur when he tried to think back on it.

Searching his memory for one of the few stories from the library he had actually read before he had realised that these were all of these stories were about real people.

He remembered a kind of slice-of-life story he had enjoyed a long time ago. Quickly weaving through the bookcases he grabbed the book he was looking for. Swiftly made his way back to the still unresponsive twin and sat down next to him.

And so he began to read aloud.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading.
> 
> Man, that was a doozy of a chapter to write. I almost made myself cry at least once, but then again, I could say the same for the last chapter.
> 
> Have a scrumptious day and remember to take care of yourself ^-^🍊


	8. A Recognition

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nightmare and Dream spend time together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you like this chapter. I may or may not have drank two Monster's before writing this so sorry if it affected the quality of the writing. 
> 
> Also thank you for almost 50 kudos, nearly 500 hits and just over 40 comments, I still can't believe so many people have read this and enjoyed it. I'd like to thank each and everyone of you from the bottom of my heart <3
> 
> TW: Dissociation, I think (I'm not sure if it is or not so please to beware if you don't deal well with descriptions of it)
> 
> Remember to take care of yourselves ^'^🍊

Dream was… present.

**********

Nightmare really wasn't the biggest fan of reading out loud. He always seemed to slip up saying sentences he had no trouble reading in his head and it was always a pain when he came across a word he didn't know how to pronounce.

But for the sake of his brother he pushed his discomfort aside, even doing different voices for the characters, using the goop his body was made up of to make them more realistic. It was almost fun and acting out all the different scenes, adding in exaggerated gestures making everything seem a little goofier and lighthearted.

Every now and then the older brother got so lost in the story he forgot about the situation that had him reading it in the first place. Then he'd glance over to his brother like he used to do Before and for just a moment it felt like nothing had changed. That they were still just kids sitting under the Tree laughing and having fun, the memory of Dream from so long ago replacing what was in front of him.

The illusion of the past didn't last long though, reality soon set back in and Nightmare was confronted with a brother who looked almost lifeless. He just shook his head and got back into reading. There was no point focusing on the past, he needed to help his brother now.

After all; what's done is done and cannot be undone.

**********

Dream felt trapped. He had only just managed to pull himself out of the deep recesses of his mind where he had subconsciously retreated to, to try and get away from his hurt.

And it did indeed help. In the short term anyway. Now, after he had gotten through the worst of his breakdown, he felt unable to get back in control of his body.

Logically he knew it was all in his head and if he tried to move he would be able to, but the less than rational parts of his mind were desperately clawing to try speak or move or  _ something _ !

When he tried to speak it felt like there was a lump in his throat stopping him from making noise and like his mouth couldn't open to let noise out. When he tried to move it felt like his arms were weighed down, as if the signals being sent out to tell his body to move were being scrambled on the way.

The experience was leaving him feeling two ways. Desperate and scared, like being trapped inside a box in his mind clawing at the walls in an attempt to escape and numbly apathetic, like it didn't matter and he might as well just stay there and let everything take its course.

Most of the time the positive guardian would just push away the more panicked part of his mind and just accept that he would be stuck this way until it went away on its own. This time however, he wanted to reach out to his brother. Now he was back in the present he realised that the garbled white noise was his brother reading him.

The situation reminded him of back before the Incident where whenever he noticed his twin feeling down he would convince the other to read to him. It was his way to try and subtly show he cared and raise his brother's spirits by getting the other to do something he enjoyed with someone who loved him.

Mentally shaking away the bittersweet memories, he focused back in on trying to do something to show his brother that it was okay, that he didn't need to worry about him anymore.

It was hard though. The helpless feeling of being trapped in your own body, able to see and hear and feel, but unable to have any control. It was suffocating.

‘No! I can't think this way. I've gotta be there my brother!’

Pushing the trapped feelings aside, he concentrated on his breathing, the only bodily function he still had any control over, keeping his breaths deep and even. He used the outside noise and motion of his brother's extravagant reading to block out his inner thoughts and try to refocus his eyelights.

Beginning with his fingers, Dream tried to encourage some movement, taking it slow and steady. Next he tried curling and uncurling his toes. Keeping his focus on the storytelling, he tried his hardest to not stress too much over getting his body to cooperate and feel like it belonged to him again.

Suddenly, while doing a particularly boisterous Papyrus impression, he managed to hit himself in the face. The expression on the older brother's face caused a laugh to spill past Dream’s nonexistent lips, a hand automatically reaching up to cover his mouth.

Turning to his brother, trying not to let his surprise show on his face, he smiled.

“Well look who's decided to rejoin us in the land of the living.”

“It's good to be back, brother.”

They looked at each other for a moment before busting out into laughter. It took a while before either of them were able to calm down again. Every time one of them managed to start quietening down they'd catch the other's eye and begin laughing all over again.

When they did stop laughing, the more light hearted mood disappeared, replaced by a tense atmosphere.

“So…”

“So…”

“All that time you were really pretending?”

“Yeah… like an actor playing a role and I did a pretty good job of if, don't ya think?”

“Well, you sure fooled me”

This managed to draw a chuckle from the drained twin.

“I'll take that as a compliment.”

“I still can't believe it wasn't real. That all this time it was fake. It's… going to take me some time to wrap my head around.”

“That's fair, I did just kinda unload all my trauma onto you in one go.”

“Did mother really do that to you?”

Dream sighed. He was really hoping that this wouldn't come up, but oh well.

“Yeah… yeah she really did. I try not to think about it, no matter how much the shit she put me through probably shaped a lot of who I am as a person. In fact I'm like ninety percent sure I developed most of my issues when she was doing all that to me. And trust me when I say that there was a severe lack of actually healthy coping mechanisms.”

“Toby, when did you get so dark?” Nightmare said as he bumped into the younger brother playfully. “It's still so hard to believe that my baby brother went through all that crap without me noticing.”

“Hey, I'm not that much younger than you!” Dream whined, pushing his brother as payback.

“Hey!” Nightmare laughed as he pushed his brother back.

With the serious mood abandoned, it wasn't long until the twins were play-fighting on the floor like babybones. The light from the window was becoming hard to see by, as the sun had almost completely dipped below the horizon.

Never before had Dream felt so at peace or so close to his only family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading.
> 
> Did I make myself feel numb while writing this chapter then bounce back at the fluffy bit at the end? Yes, yes I did and I have no regrets lol. 
> 
> Personally, in my mind, while neither of the Deamtale twins fit perfectly into either a Sans or Papyrus role, Nightmare is closest to Sans in my mind, with himy being the older brother and depressed, and Dream is closest to Papyrus, with his supposed näivety and probably knowing/understanding more than he's given credit for.
> 
> Last year, when it comes to siblings there's a big difference between play-fighting and actually fighting. Because while both involve trying to hurt the other, proper fighting generally involves insults and arguments where as a play-fight is more laughing and messing.
> 
> Sorry for the long note, I just though of a lot of things I wanted to mention while writing this. (Also ngl I was excited to finally be writing fluff for this a good bit before I even started writing it and then I went and made it sad, why do I do this to myself?)
> 
> I hope you have anot incredible day ^-^🍊


	9. A Morning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream isn't much of a morning person.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoy this chapter. Also I can't believe it, since I uploaded the last chapter this fic has passed 500 hits. I am honestly shocked that so many people have read this, I literally expected that almost no one would have read this, but here we are.
> 
> TW: Suicidal ideation and self deprivation
> 
> Remember to take care of yourself ^-^🍊

Dust was… unbothered. 

**********

The trip back to his room was as uneventful as the Void. He saw no one after he parted ways with his brother. By time he reached his room it was pitch black outside and the air was still, an undisturbed feeling to it.

As Dream laid back in his bed he felt calm. It was the type of calmness you can only achieve after having a breakdown and crying. Thoroughly worn down by the day, the guardian thought back on what had happened.

Gosh, everything felt like it had been so long ago, it was almost like he had been screaming at his bother a few months ago and not just a few hours ago. Closing his eyes and letting his mind settle as much as it could, he pushed away the worst of the day. His bones still ached a little from when his twin had managed to get one up on him, but Dream, being the upstanding sibling that he is, gave just as good as he got.

Sleep came quickly after that. And as he slept, he dreamt of a bizarre reality where he was the dictator of a colony of Sans, where for some reason he enforced very strict regulations on teddy bears and cotton candy.

**********

The next morning, Dream awoke to the beginnings of sunlight shining into his bedroom. From the looks of things it was pretty early in the morning.

Getting ready to face the day, the positive guardian had a thought. Maybe he'd get some breakfast today. It seemed a much less daunting task than before to potentially end up speaking to someone else now that he and his brother were beginning to mend their relationship.

‘But what if yesterday was just him being a little nicer to me because he was still shaken by my braken (heh, shaken by my braken). He probably doesn't give a sit about you and would kill you if it didn't mean he'd have to deal with my position until he died. You absolutely w o r t h l e s s piece of fucking shit! Maybe he wouldn't fucking be like this if you just fucking killed yourself before all this shit went down, huh? Maybe everything would be better off without you if you just dusted yourself, so they wouldn't have to put up with your dumbass screwing everything up?’

‘Ooor I could just do the thing I decided on doing bitch. It's rude to dust yourself in someone else's house anyway. Just go down there and if everything goes to shit, just go back to the library so you won't have any chance of seeing them again until tomorrow. And if everything's still shit then, theeen you can kill yourself because kidnapping you in the first place and adding on to your long list of trauma. There, problem solved.’

Dream had a little laugh at his own thought process. Ugh, he should probably do something about that. Eh, that's later him’s problem.

Making his way down towards the kitchen he started getting a little anxious. He resolved to get something small so that he wouldn't have to be there for long.

As he walked through the kitchen he noticed Dust and Cross sitting on the couch, who he tried very hard to make it seem like he hadn't, in fact, noticed. Nevertheless Dust still greeted him with a quick “mornin’”. Dream, still very tired from just recently waking up, could only muster up the energy to reply with a weary smile and wave before continuing on to the kitchen.

Stepping over the threshold he spotted a fruit bowl. After much deliberation he chose an apple. He felt a little vindictive pleasure biting into it. It was like a tiny fuck you to the first person to traumatise him.

**********

“Hey Cross, did Dream seem kinda weird just there, or was that just me?”

“No more than he has been the last few weeks, although seeing him here is definitely strange.”

“I don't  _ think _ that was it. He just seemed less peppy than usual or something.”

“Dude, have you even looked at him when you were on food duty?”

“I mean yeah, but I just figured he was reading something sad.”

“Nah bro, we've been fighting those Star Shits for ages and I never once saw Dream drop his smile for anything. Seriously, even that one time a bunch of rubble landed on him. It's sort of creepy to see someone in a situation where they shouldn't be smiling, smiling.”

“I dunno man, he seems like the kinda guy who'd do that to try and avoid upsetting someone who saw him.”

“No, it's not just that, his aura stays at full power as well when he's been smiling. It didn't seem to be working for a while, but up until about a week after finding the library he still had a faint aura if you got within about two odd meters of him. Now, nothing, even when he was smiling there was nothing there. It's really freaky. That's why I hate bringing him food, I always end up feeling like he's watching me or something for an unreasonable amount of time after leaving.”

Hey, snap out of it. You know you can come to me if you need to talk about it or anything right? We could alway spar or prank Horror if you don't feel like talking, too. That alright?”

“Yeah… yeah, thanks Dust, I needed that. Who knows, maybe if he talks to us, he'll tell us what that's been about and the stupid feeling that I'm being followed when I've been around him will go away.”

“Heh, maybe.”

Dust grabbed Cross’ hand to try and comfort him a little. He decidedly did not like having Dream around when it upset his found family. ‘Huh, thinking back, this might be the first time in a good while that Dream has been through here. I wonder what changed.’ Shaking his head, Dust focused back in on his conversation with the other skeleton.

There's no use thinking about stuff you'd most likely never get an answer to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading.
> 
> I literally spent most of my afternoon trying to draw an image I had in my head from some of the earlier chapters. It's not very good since I don't draw a lot, but imma work on it during online clases tomorrow so I'll show you my mediocre at best art tomorrow.
> 
> (Edit: I just realised I forgot to give Dream his crown in the thing I'm drawing fml)
> 
> Ugh, online classes are going to k i l l me. Also passive suicidal ideation is likely to show up more often from now on so if you think it'd be a good idea to add a marker for when that happens let me know.
> 
> I don't think there's anything else I'd like to say. Have a creative day and remember; hydrate or diedrate ^-^🍊


	10. A Confrontation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Please leave Dream be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoy the new chapter. Also thank you for over 50 kudos, it means a lot to me that you actually like my fic.
> 
> I still haven't finished the digital drawing, but I did end up doing a different version of it using my sketch while my tablet was low on charge today. So here's a link to it:  
> https://butterscotchcookiesbroccolibois.tumblr.com/  
> (Yes, ik it's just a link to my tumblr, but I don't know how to get links to posts and I don't really go on it that often so it should be fine)
> 
> Have a good day and remember to take care of yourself ^-^🍊

Dream was… nervous.

**********

When Dust got up to get some breakfast with Cross he did not expect to see Dream staring vacant at a half eaten apple with a smug smile on his face.

He turned around to face Cross. “You seein’ what I'm seein’?”

Cross frowned and hunched in on himself a little. “Yeah, it's kind of freaky to be honest.”

Dust glanced back over to Dream. “Yo, imma ask him what's up.”

“No don't-”

“Hey Dream, you okay?”

Dream startled and shook his head. “Yeah, just thinking.”

The clipped explanation sounded kinda suspicious to the hooded skeleton so he decided to probe further.

“What were ya thinkin’ ‘bout?”

“Oh, just someone from a long time ago, it's nothing special.”

Oh, an ex perhaps. If it was, he was gonna absolutely use this as ammo against Nightmare, it'd probably get to him if his brother had been in a relationship before him.

“An ex, huh?”

“Ew! Gross, no. Just- ugh, no. Why would you say that?”

“It was just a thought, jeese.”

In Dust’s esteemed opinion, that was a weirdly extreme reaction and looking over to Cross he wasn't the only one who thought so.

“Heh, sorry about that, I'm just not a big fan of romance stuff.”

Dream seemed to curl into himself awkwardly after speaking. It almost made Dust feel bad. Almost.

“Meh, it's chill.”

Conversation with the guardian died after that.

For a while it stayed calm. Dream continued eating his apple. The two other skeletons went back to their conversation about their respective AUs’ myths and legends. Turns out that there can be massive differences in mythos between universes and it just so happened that X-tale had a very interesting mythos itself.

The sun had fully risen and the guardian had finished his apple before anything happened again.

**********

Dream was relieved to finally be able to get out of the kitchen. He had been tense since Dust decided to speak to him. Toby, he hated having to talk to people he didn't know. Especially if they asked about romance for seemingly no reason. His aro ass was not there for that kinda shit.

Making his way towards the kitchen counter he began to look around to see where the compost bin was. Behind him he heard another person enter. Speeding up his search for a compost bin, the positive guardian hoped that whoever it was that had just come in would leave him alone and he would be able to leave without having to talk to another monster, the talking he had done before was enough social interaction for the day, thank you very much.

Unfortunately, for the golden eyed skeleton it seemed luck wasn't on his side as he saw the person approaching him in his peripheral vision. He froze up. He wasn’t able to sense him, so Dream began to prepare for the worst.

People who's auras he couldn't sense were generally bad news and he **Did Not** want to be yelled at today.

The person had gotten close enough that they were almost touching before speaking.

“Move, you're blocking the coffee.”

Scrambling out of the way like he was asked, the guardian was now able to see that the gruff voice came from none other than Horror.

“O-oh, sorry.” squeaked Dream.

Not wanting to stay any longer, he decided that finding the compost bin wasn't as important anymore. Horror had seemed pretty angry at him last time the other skeleton was near him.

Dropping the apple core into the bin, the guardian made a beeline for the door. Maybe he'd read a short fluff story when he got to the library to calm down from this. Maybe he'd see if he could find a cute hurt/comfortable Undertale book.

“Stop right there. Why the Underhell did you just put the apple core in the bin? Not bothered to try to find the compost are you?” Horror sneered.

Dream shook his head quickly. “N-no, I just c-couldn't find it, honestly.”

“It's just under the sink. You'd know that if you had actually tried to look.”

It was such an obvious place to look now that it had been mentioned. He felt so stupid for not looking there sooner.

“W-well I guess I'll r-remember that for next time then.”

The two skeletons at the table shifted awkwardly, uncomfortable with the tense atmosphere in the kitchen.

“No, fix your mistake. Put the apple in the right bin. Now!”

At this point, the guardian was starting to feel a ball of nervousness in his chest. He really didn't want to upset any of his brother's gang the day after he had begun mending broken bridges with his brother. They had only just started getting along again and Dream knew that his brother would pick his gang over him if it came down to it.

“Alright, just give me a second.”

He reached down to take off his right glove. Apparently he was taking too long because Horror started giving out to him again.

“Hurry up dumbass, we haven't got all day.”

His glove finally off the positive guardian reached into the bin to grab the apple core. It was a big enough bin, but it wasn't very full yet. He had to almost put his whole arm inside the bin before he could touch anything.

Beside where the apple core was, was something cold and slimy that he ended up getting on his hand grabbing ahold of the apple core, he began to pull away from the bin.

Suddenly he felt a spark of positivity behind him. He didn't get a chance to think about what was happening before he was nudged? pushed? something, into the bin.

“Whoops.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading.
> 
> How do artists do it? My back and neck hurts from looking down while drawing all day. Hope you liked what I drew. I'm not much of an artist, but sometimes I'll randomly feel like doing it.
> 
> Also ik Horror is kind of a jerk in this, but, to be fair, you wouldn't be very happy if you saw someone reading more or less about fucked up shit you've had to go through for enjoyment.
> 
> Also also, aro Dream! I had the idea a good long while back before I started writing this. In my AU he is not, in fact, aro ace, but I'll explore it a little more in the fic later on.
> 
> Have a supercalifragalisticexpialidocious day and remember to eat enough ^-^🍊


	11. A Scolding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A continuation on from the last chapter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoy the new chapter. I finally finished the digital drawing, but it took me until 1:27am to do that so I ended up starting writing this late. I'm really tired haha
> 
> It's just the link to my tumblr again bc idk how to get that specific post still:  
> https://butterscotchcookiesbroccolibois.tumblr.com/
> 
> Remember to take care of yourself ^-^🍊

Horror was… irritated. 

**********

Dream was utterly dumbfounded. He knew Horror didn't particularly like him from the one or two times they had briefly spoken in the library, but he didn't think he'd do something like this.

Pulling himself back out of the bin, the guardian turned around to see Dust and Cross slowly approaching. Both of them appeared to be just as shocked as he was by the sudden turn of events.

“Are… you okay?”

Cross was the first one to speak up. While a little unsure of himself, he seemed rather put off by his friend’s actions.

“Uhh, yeah, I'm fine thanks. I'll just go put this in the right bin and have a shower.”

“Are you sure?” Dust piped up.

“Yeah, I'm sure.”

Dream quickly moved to the compost and then the door. He didn't want to be stuck in there any longer. It was awful and if not for the years of repression fucking up his emotions, he'd probably be crying at this point. How his brother was able to stand anything even vaguely similar to that kind of thing was beyond him entirely. Actually, looking back, he didn't really. He just let his resentment, anger and bitterness grow until he self-destructed.

Dream heard some noise from the kitchen. Upon hearing his name he decided to speed his departure up. He didn't know what they were talking about and didn't think he wanted to find out.

**********

Cross looked unhappily up at Horror. Beside him, Dust was giving the other skeleton a talking to.

“What the Underhell Horror? Why’d ya push Dream into the bin like that? I get that ya don't like him, but that doesn't mean ya get t’ be mean to him for no bloody reason! Cop on now, ya know better th’n that. Besides, Nightmare’s probably gonna throw a fit about it. Ya  _ know _ he doesn't like it when we do anything that’d cause a mess. Just look around the bin. There's bits of rubbish all around it. You know you're going to have to clean that up, right?”

“Yeah…”

“You're gonna go out there and get some new clothes for Dream after ya eat to make up for it. I don't want to hear ya complainin’ about it or I'm gonna go tell Nightmare. I couldn't care less about Dream, but if Nightmare finds out about this and I get in trouble for not doing anything, I swear to Toby. Now get some food, get Dream a change of clothes and bloody well apologise. I'm not getting in trouble over this.”

“Fine.”

Cross almost laughed. Horror sounded just like a petulant teenager after being asked to do something they didn't want to, but weren't bothered to fight the losing battle.

Cross swears that Dust was almost as bossy as Nightmare when he felt like it. The hooded skeleton normally doesn't care about anything, but after an incident a while back he goes into full on ‘Scolding Mode’.

One time when this first started happening Killer decided to ignore Dust. After all, at the time they all thought the threats of telling Nightmare or confiscating personal items wouldn't be followed through on. Later that day, Killer came back into the living room frantically searching for his knives. When he asked the others if they knew where they were Dust revealed that he had followed through with his threat and that unless what he told Killer to do was done by tomorrow afternoon he'd start throwing the knives into a Hotland’s lava.

Needless to say no one messed around with ‘Scolding Mode’ Dust after that.

He went back over to where he was sitting and picked back up where he left off in his conversation with the hooded skeleton. Out of the corner of his eye socket he saw Horror put together a bowl of cereal dejectedly.

**********

Horror was not happy to say the least.

He was really angry at that fucking asshat for doing his usual dumb shit. He was mad at Dust for using ‘Scolding Mode’ on him. He was still going to do what the other asked of him, but that didn't mean he had to like it.

Finishing up his cereal, he moved on to dealing with the bowl which only took him a few moments, although his aggressive cleaning of the dirty dishes slowed him down. 

On his way out the door, Dust called out to him “And get him real clothes, not rags.”

Grunting in response, the red eyed skeleton dragged his feet all the way down to where the miscellaneous spare clothes were kept. They were there mostly as punishment for doing something stupid that upset Nightmare enough to force anyone involved in the stupid thing into pastel or childish clothes. This included when they left the base to spread chaos and such.

Looking inside the cupboards containing the clothes, Horror grabbed the first two things that looked like they would fit the little shit, a yellow jumper and a pair of soft, stonewashed jeans.

The walk to the captive’s room seemed to both take forever and no time at all. Horror couldn't decide whether or not that was a bad thing. On one hand he just wanted to get the dumb apology over with. On the other hand he really didn't want to interact with the annoyance any more than he had to.

Pushing aside the thoughts causing this whole thing to drag out even longer he raised a hand and knocked on the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading.
> 
> My neck hurts but I'm finally finished haha. I think the drawing turned out okay in the end.
> 
> I have no idea why I'm giving Dream a different outfit, but I'm just gonna roll with it for now.
> 
> I have been avoiding doing any real work for school lol.
> 
> Have a nice and friendly day and remember to take your meds if you need to take any  
> ^-^🍊


	12. A Justification

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream and Horror talk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoy the new chapter. I had to start adding it again right before I was about to post it because I think I accidentally hit the back button.
> 
> I did art while not paying attention in class again. It's of Dream in the clothes Horror got for him. It's not that good since it's kinda rushed, but eh.
> 
> https://butterscotchcookiesbroccolibois.tumblr.com/

Horror was… disgusted.

**********

Horror was a little startled when the door opened almost immediately after he knocked. From the looks of it the little shit-show had been pacing around his room or something similar. He didn't know why, but seeing the bit of fear in it's eye when he saw who he was didn't feel as good as the first time it had happened.

**********

Dream was absolutely terrified, but pushed it down around best he could. Horror must have gone after him to have another go at him. He focused on the other skeleton’s face, tunnel vision setting in.

**********

Horror saw the nasty thing stand stiffly, not looking him in the eyes. This pissed him off even more. The little shit didn't even respect him enough to look him in the eyes. 

The red eyed skeleton pushed those thoughts away for the moment. He could be angry at it after he'd apologised. Better to get it over with quickly than drag this stupid thing out.

“Here.”

He held the clothes he had gathered for it expectantly. Instead of taking the clothes, however, it gave him a look of confusion.

**********

“Why d-did you b-bring me clothes? You d-didn't have to-to do that.”

Dream cursed his shaky voice. He didn't know what was happening and somehow that made everything worse. He attempted to pull himself away from the fear slightly, aware of how his unsure speech was likely very irritating to the taller skeleton.

**********

Horror really didn't want to deal with this so early in the morning.

“I was the reason for your old ones getting dirty. Think of it as an apology for what happened in the kitchen.”

There simple, straight forward, no reason to separate the two things he was sent to do after all.

“Oh, w-well then thank you. I really appreciate it. It was very nice of you.”

The smile Horror was given along with the thanks made him uncomfortable.

**********

Dream was relieved. The other skeleton had come down to apologise, not hurt him. And on top of the apology he had brought him a fresh set of clothes.

**********

“I still don't like you. I'm only doing this because I don't wanna get in trouble, you pathetic monster.”

“Oh… well thank you for doing it anyway.”

What the Underhell is it on. Horror literally just told him he only did this because he was forced to and it still thanked him?

“Why are you thanking me? I just told you I'm only doing this because I had to. This is why I don't like you, you act all nice and then read messed up stories about real fucking world events without a care in the world. As if it's fun. It's disgraceful how you just read about other people's trauma for entertainment.

_ "Y ou disgust me .” _

It mumbled something, but it was too quiet for him to hear.

“If you're gonna speak then speak loud enough for people around you to hear dipshit.”

“I said that I wasn't reading it for fun.”

**********

The shorter skeleton was shocked. He couldn't believe that that was the reason Horror though he read that stuff. That was so messed up.

**********

The red eyed skeleton raised a brow bone in disbelief. After all, what other reasons could there be for someone to read that sort of stuff.

“Somehow I don't believe you.” he said deadpan.

“Of course not. The main reason I read them is to figure out how I really feel about what happened in them. Like I guess they can be entertaining, but only when there's a little comedy or quiet moments. Most of the time they're disturbing, upsetting, horrifying or sickening. I read that type of thing so I have an idea or what I could have felt when it happened.”

It looked defensive. Like Horror had hit a sore spot. Wait a second-

“What do you mean by what you could have felt or how you really feel? Did you forget or something? Like how the actual fuck does someone forget how they feel seeing the kind of shit in those universes?!?!”

“What? No, of course I didn't forget. I just amn’t allowed to feel negative when I'm connected to the Multiverse. I read them to try to figure out how I would have felt if I was allowed. You don't live for as long as I have or see the things I've seen without seeing some messed up things after all.”

It was now when Horror remembered how much older than the rest of them it was. The look on its face was bone weary and tired, the shadows on its face seemingly darkening as if remembering something terrible too many times. It still didn't excuse the other using others trauma to try and fix his own.

“Why read about other worlds instead of thinking it through yourself? You don't  _ need _ to read stories to feel different things.”

“Horror, of course I can’t think it through myself. I've been repressing emotions for centuries, I don't know how to feel or deal with negative emotions properly. With the books I can read it to feel and I can take a break if it gets too much for me.”

**********

Dream was just so bone tired. He could feel his emotions fade and dull a little. It probably wasn't good, but what was a skeleton to do. This conversation was starting to make him remember stuff he'd rather not remember right this second. Without that safety of dealing with his emotions from behind a book, Dream knew he would get overwhelmed and he didn't know if he could handle that right now.

He wasn't sure how he felt about telling Horror all of this, but if it helped to stop the other from hating him it'd probably be worth it.

**********

“Wait a second, why would you feeling a little sad be so bad anyway? Whatever would happen to the Multiverse can't be that bad.”

“The balance would tip and the Multiverse would begin to collapse. The more unfortunate and sad universes would be the first to go as my emotions prevented more happiness from perpetuating the positivity. In an attempt to maintain the Balance by itself, the Multiverse would begin to remove negativity hot spots. The same is true for my brother, but he has more leeway than me because the Balance favours him, lucky bastard.”

Horror was shocked. What the actual-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading.
> 
> I am so tired. I've only been writing this between 12am and 3:30~am and I haven't had the energy to edit them so most of these are 1st drafts. On the other hand I'll hopefully get a longer chapter out tmrw bc I won't have school the next day.
> 
> Have a spectacular day. Remember to take time for yourself when you need to ^-^🍊


	13. A Talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Revelations.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you like this chapter. I'm a little more sleep deprived than usual so I apologise if the chapter isn't that good.
> 
> Remember to take care of yourself ^-^🍊

Dream was… tired.

**********

What the flying fuck did it mean by that?!

“What the fuck?! Why would I believe that?! That's just ridiculous, Nightmare would have told us about that by now if it were true. Don't lie to me!” Horror growled.

“I'm not lying.” A thoughtful look flashed across its face. “Um… oh! I know a way to convince you! Do you know about that one AU with a bunch of empty space surrounding it.”

“Yeah, what's the Dead Zone gotta do with this?” He remembered the quiet terror when he saw the empty spaces for the first time. He wasn't around when it happened, but he had overheard a few AUs that bordered the Dead Zone saying that whatever it was, it had been incredibly fast moving, eradicating AU after AU in mere minutes.

“That was me. The only time I have ever broken down it ended up being in that AU. A number of the surrounding universes collapsed before I was able to compose myself again.”

“Holy shit.”

No wonder it couldn’t feel sad. That destruction was so fast that not even Error having an ‘Episode’ could destroy AUs  _ that _ quickly.

“Yeah, oh and my brother didn't tell you because he didn’t know. Mother only told me apparently.”

“That-that’s so messed up.”

“I know.”

**********

Dream’s emotions felt less and less present by the second. He really hadn't wanted to bring… That up, but what choice did he have. He could have either made himself a bit worse off thinking about them or he could have made Horror even angrier at him. He was still suffering the effects of his month-long isolation and probably wouldn't have been able to get back up again if the other skeleton chose to hurt him.

The shocked look of realisation on Horror’s face let him know that he was less likely to be in danger of attack for the moment. It took a minute for either of them to speak again.

“How long has it been before now that you have felt down?”

“Maybe around four hundred years give or take. Before that, never.”

“So you really were just using the books to deal with that?”

“Yeah, the books let me feel what the person they're about is feeling while giving me a little separation to stop me from getting overwhelmed. Besides, everything in those books has already come to pass. There's nothing that can be done about what's already happened.”

“I still don't think what you're doing is okay, other people's trauma is not a crutch for your poor understanding of certain emotions, but I guess I understand why you do it.”

Dream could tell that Horror hadn't so much as ‘calmed down’ as he had simply begun getting overwhelmed by the sudden influx of new information. He was glad. The energy it was taking to keep the conversation going at this point was more than he had to spare.

“Thank you again for the clothes Horror. See ya?”

“Uh, yeah. See ya.”

Closing his door, the guardian turned around and began to get ready for a shower.

**********

Dust saw Horror return to the living room an unusually long time after he had left. Instead of explaining like he normally would have, the  _ hole _ -y skeleton flopped straight down, face first onto the couch.

“Before you ask, I did what you told me to do.”

“Good. Now, why are you lying on the couch?”

“Dream told me some stuff and I don't know how to deal with it.”

“What did he tell you? There's no way it could be  _ that _ bad, I meant this is the ever happy Dream we're talking about. Sure he's been acting kinda odd for a while, but still.”

“The Dead Zone.”

“What about it?”

“It was Dream. Dream was sad one time and it caused all those AUs to collapse.”

“How on Outertale-”

“What did I miss for you to be talking about the Dead Zone?” Killer interrupted Dust. He had only just woken up it seemed.

Horror groaned at the addition of another person to the room.

“According to Horror over here,” he gestured towards the skeleton on the couch, “Dream caused the Dead Zone.”

“That’s… not what I expected.”

**********

Dream headed to the library from the bathroom, stopping along the way to drop off his dirty clothes in his room. He'd wash them later.

The clothes he'd gotten from Horror were very soft and comfy. It was nice.

The golden eyed skeleton had soon settled down in the library after picking up some new books. He picked the book off the top of the pile, but instead of starting it, he put it down in his lap and stared out the window. He could help but look back apathetically at all the times in his past that would have been better if he had been able to emote like a normal monster.

He wanted to feel, but his emotions had seemingly slipped through his fingers like sand the moment he felt himself start to panic back in the kitchen. His emotions shut down whenever he got too upset. It was something that he had learnt from his time spent with mother.

He desperately clawed at the numbness mentally as he tried to feel again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading.
> 
> Ik this chapter isn't great, but I'm working on a little side fic of the Dead Zone's backstory.
> 
> Have a pleasant day. Don't be like me, remember to sleep ^-^🍊


	14. A Method

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream is not okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoy this chapter. I was more awake today because I got to sleep in in the morning so hopefully the writing is a bit better. Oh, I also finished this before 3am so that's another positive.
> 
> TW: Self harm, Derealisation (I'm serious, it gets pretty intense)
> 
> Remember to take care of yourself ^-^🍊

Dream was... empty.

**********

Dream found himself unable to concentrate on the book in his hands when he tried to read it. Deciding to head back to his room for a few minutes, he put the book down and left the library.

**********

Dream laid on his bed as the emptiness numbed his emotions more and more, he felt the world around him seem less and less real.

Sometimes his mind's eye would overlay a graph over the world around him, like he was in a game. Sometimes everything just felt a little off like it had been moved slightly to the left of where it should be. Mostly, he looked around and nothing felt like it was actually there.

Looking down at his own hands he tried moving them, but the movements didn't feel like they belonged to him. His body felt wrong and seeing his reflection in the window did nothing to help.

He tried to speak, to say something in an attempt to ground himself, but found that he couldn't. Logically, he knew that he could speak if he tried hard enough, but his mind wasn't letting the message through to his body.

The panicked desperation not to slip away was dimming, just a little, as the hollow feeling in his chest grew. He had never fought this before. The experience wasn't pleasant, but it meant he couldn't be sad. Mother... _encouraged_ this response for that reason until it came automatically, morphing from a conscious choice into an instinct. This time, however, he didn't want to slip away into oblivion, mindlessly sleepwalking through daily activities, only the twinge of positivity he was able to muster up still present.

Dream sat up and looked around the room for anything that could ground him, but saw nothing. Slipping further into the recesses of his mind, he forced himself to keep searching for something.

He tried looking out the window in case the cool air helped, but the stuffy feeling in his chest refused to subside.

He looked through the wardrobe to see if there was anything there, but there was nothing but some pyjamas.

He tried putting his hands around his neck and squeezing slightly in case the feeling in his (metaphorical) throat becoming physical would help. Still nothing.

He looked through the bedside table and found a pair of scissors. Perhaps…

Dream sat down on the edge of the bed. He looked down to his legs. Holding the scissors firmly closed so as not to damage his pants, he stabbed downwards. It hurt. Just a little.

So he did it again. And again. And again. Over and over. It was better than nothing, but still...

I t w a s n ' t e n o u g h.

Pulling up his sleeves to above his elbows and opening the scissors, pressing it to his boney arm close to the wrist, but not close enough to be seen with long sleeves. He mentally prepared himself, it had been a few months since he'd done it after all. It hadn't done anything for him before, but maybe it'd be different now that he wasn't feeling present.

He pulled the edge of the scissors across his ulna and radius, making sure to press the tip in.

He… felt something? It was odd. Normally he didn't. He felt pleasant, like some of the tension had been released, however temporarily it might be.

So he did it again and again and again and again. Then he switched arms so no one area would collect too many and repeated the process. He pulled up his shirt and drew the blade across his ribs twice on either side. Next he attacked his pelvis each side gaining four new cuts. They bled faster than the others. Lastly, he brought the slightly dulled scissors to the inside of his femur, cutting with a little less force than before since the area was more sensitive than the other spots.

He looked down over the damage. His arms were bleeding, but that could be easily dealt with until it clotted. His ribs were fine. There was only a little red peeking through, but not enough to be an issue. His femur was the same. His pelvis was bleeding quite a lot though, so he grabbed two tissues, folded them up and lodged them in his waistband so they'd cover his cuts until they had clotted.

Bringing his arms to his mouth, Dream locked off the beads of blood that had made their way to the surface of his bones.

He focused all his mind on how nice the pain was feeling. It was another new feeling and that alone made him want to savour it. The fact that it was keeping the hollowness at bay was not forgotten though.

He replaced the scissors and laid back on his bed again. He closed his eyes to help him focus. If he focused hard enough it was like nothing existed in the world except the pain.

The pain, unfortunately, faded over time, but Dream held on to the remnants until they were nothing more than a faint whisper. Binning the tissue, he scanned the small wounds he had left scattered across his body to see if they looked like they'd join the two small scars he had already given himself or if they'd just be another barely there mark on his arm. From the looks of it they'd just leave a mark, but he couldn't be sure since he hadn't used a blade that was the same sharpness as this before.

Looking to the old clothes he had left in the corner of his room to be washed later he made a mental note to ask someone where he could wash them later. Moving back towards the library he thought of what he’d read this time.

He didn't want to cut too much in one day lest he accidentally bring his HP down, so he decided to try replacing his own emotions with those of the people in the books.

Though their usual vibrancy had dulled, the stories were still able to keep him from slipping away. Though escaping from his problems didn't help them at all, it did distract his mind so long as he kept reading.

His eyes were focused only on the page in front of him so all that he could register seeing were the words on the page and his mental image of what was happening. Nothing else felt real. Anytime he got the slightest bit distracted while reading he would be forced to once again acknowledge his disconnect from reality.

It was as though he was nothing more than a collection of thoughts. He could feel the slight twinge of the cuts on his ribs when he moved and the solid weight of the book in his hands, but they didn't feel real. They felt like they belonged to someone else and they weren't truly a part of him, but his body.

He pushed past it and focused on the words in front of him again before he could spiral further.

**********

It was another two hours before it got too dark to read. Dream finished off the last paragraph of the single-chaptered book he was reading before heading back to the bedroom. Getting ready for bed, the short skeleton continued avoiding his thoughts by loudly thinking about what happened in the last thing he read.

Lying down in bed, he continued to think of other meaningless drabbles. However, this could only last so long. Closing his eyes, he let the emptiness take over, having run out of ways to hold it back.

Dream laid in bed with only his rambling thoughts for company.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading.
> 
> Wow, that chapter had some really heavy angst. I'd say I'm sorry but I'm not lol. Dream really isn't okay and I hope this chapter shows how bad it can get and what his mother's influence as a child has done to him. I really how you paid attention to the trigger warning at the start because it got pretty bad.
> 
> The derealisation is something I've been dealing with a bit more than usual lately so that's probably why it ended up in this chapter. I don't really have more than an idea of a couple plot point or a few scenes for this, so each chapter is more or less a "we'll see what happens when I start writing" kinda thing, where all I have is a vague idea of what I want to have happen in that chapter.
> 
> Oh, work on the side story is going pretty good too,
> 
> Have a calm day. Remember to put your mental health first when you need to ^-^🍊


	15. A Thing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream is feeling a little empty.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoy the chapter. This one isn't as heavey as the last and it's almost twice the length. However, I am posting this after 4am so I apologise for any mistakes I might have made, if you spot them, please tell me so I can correct them.
> 
> TW: Self harm (mentioned), apathy (I don't if this is a trigger, but I fugue I'd put it here just in case)
> 
> Remember to take care of yourself ^-^🍊

Dream was… feeling.

**********

Dream yawned as he sat up in bed.

“Dammit, I forgot to ask about washing my clothes. Whelp, guess I'll go down again for breakfast and ask then. Two birds with one stone and all that.”

While he was changing back into the clothes he'd been given the day before, he thought about what would happen when he went into the kitchen. Yesterday's events were still fresh in his mind, but it felt like he'd come so some sort of understanding with Horror.

Speaking of how the guardian felt, he still couldn't. The difference now was that he'd given up and accepted it. It was almost calm now. A stark difference to the hollow negative presence it had been before he fell asleep.

Before leaving the room, Dream pulled up his sleeves once more to check on the cuts. They were red and stung slightly when he touched them, but not bleeding. Pulling them back down he proceeded to check over the rest of the cuts. They were all in the same state as the ones on his arms, no blood on his bones or his pyjamas. Readjusting his clothes again he took a moment to enjoy the stinging irritation the fabric caused him.

Finally ready to leave, he opened the door and made his way down to the kitchen.

“Maybe if I…?”

Dream thought aloud as he tried to figure out if he could force himself to feel a little positive. He tried to think back to the last time he was feeling positive. Reaching back to his excitement when Toriel and Sans finally got together in that story he read a little while back and grabbing on to it, he attempted to force the feelings on himself. Nothing.

“Fuck, that worked last time.” the guardian blandly commented to himself.

“Watch your mouth. Boss might hear and wash your mouth out with soap. Literally.”

Still distracted by his thoughts on how to trick himself into feeling, he didn't really think about it when he responded

“No he won't.”

With a bland certainty. It was only once he had spoken that he noticed Killer had fallen in step beside him, probably heading to the kitchen for some breakfast as well. ‘At least it wasn't anyone who was there in the kitchen yesterday.’

“And what makes you say that? I doubt you'd get special privileges.”

“Huh? I learnt to curse before him so I'm allowed to and he's not, simple as that. Why would I need special privileges?”

“What do you mean when you say you learnt how to curse first? That can't be right, you're too much of a goodie two shoes to do that.”

“Oh, he doesn't swear still? Good. Yeah, when we were younger I was in the village more than my brother so I heard people cursing more often than him. I picked it, but when I heard him cursing I stopped him. I cursed first and only one of us is allowed to swear. Heh, good times.”

The little laugh made him feel a little, but the feeling was still hollow so he counted it as a loss and left it to one side for now.

“Oh my stars, I can't believe that that's the reason Boss doesn't curse. The others are gonna laugh their asses off eh en there ay hear this.”

“Nice.”

Dream didn't really have the energy for conversation, but he wasn't bothered to say anything to Killer. Instead he chose to simply keep his answers as short as possible, even with his tendency to over explain things.

“Oh, I wanted to ask, Horror mentioned something about you being behind the Dead Zone the other day. I was wondering if that was true.”

“It is.”

“Woah, who knew that Mr. Pacifist could be the cause of so much destruction? What happened?”

The black eyed skeleton appeared to be entirely oblivious at how uncomfortable his questions were making the guardian. He really wanted the conversation to end already.

“I don't want to talk about it. And really calling me a pacifist was the best you could do? At least try to be accurate.”

“Fine. And aren't you a pacifist? You literally hate fighting us and I'm pretty sure I've seen you apologise to a bird for accidentally hitting it in a battle one time.”

Dream cursed his new openness that he had gained with the new emotions when his first thought was to pull down his sleeves and ask if a pacifist would do this to themselves. Pushing that thought deep deep down, he pressed onward. Maybe if he answered the other's questions he'd leave him be.

“The bird didn't deserve it and of course I wouldn't want to fight you. Who would actually _want_ to be forced to hurt their own brother? Besides, I'm the Guardian of Positivity, not the guardians of nice things. I mean would you call the sadistic glee the yandere Sanses and Papyruses feel when they kill someone nice? Or the morbid satisfaction of some Charas and Frisks when they finally beat Sans for the first time nice? Really?”

That seemed to throw Killer for a loop. ‘Good, maybe he'll leave me alone now.’ Dream thought as they finally made it to the living room. Speeding up slightly, he avoided having his conversation with the other starting up again.

When he reached the kitchen, he spotted Dust eating a slice of toast. He was a little hungry since he hadn't eaten a whole lot yesterday, so he decided to get some toast for himself.

As he got his breakfast together, he thoroughly ignored everyone else, focusing back in on trying to feel a little. It was a fun little challenge for what it was worth, although at some point his chest started hurting, which had never happened before when he'd fuel like this. How odd.

Dream decided to change tactics this time. Instead of using a memory maybe he should just pick something to be excited about and roll with it.

Thinking about the books he'd get to read today, he exaggerated his excitement to himself, but kept it in his head so he wouldn't draw attention with a random outburst.

‘Fuck yeah, I'm gonna read so many books today! They're all gonna be so interesting I can't wait! Fucking yeeEEESSSSS!’

Well that worked. Only as long as he forced the excitement, but it was still kinda fun while it lasted.

Once again, Dream was too caught up in his mind to notice someone new enter the room until they were right behind him. So when they tapped him on the shoulder he was not expecting it .

“WHAT THE FUCK, oh it's only you brother. Sorry about that.”

Dust and Killer watched on with bated breath to see what would happen. Dust was excited to see another victim of Nightmare’s soapy punishment for cursing, while Killer was looking forward to finding out whether or not Dream was telling the truth.

“Could you move out of the way. You're standing in front of the kettle.”

“Oh, sorry about that.” Dream moved over to in front of the toaster “There you go.”

The two murderers were shocked. They'd never seen anyone get away with cursing in front of Nightmare before, especially not that loudly. Dust was the first to recover.

“What was that?! Why did you just let him curse?!”

“It's none of your business.”

Nightmare didn't look as if he had any more energy for this kind of carry on than Dream. At least until was able to drink the coffee he was boiling water for.

“Yes it is. How come you just let him curse when we can't? It doesn't make any sense. Not even you swear, yet he's allowed to?”

Killer watched on, amused at finding out that what Dream had told him was actually true. Dream just hoped he wouldn't get dragged into this, grabbing his toast out of the toaster and spreading butter on both slices. He had elected to ignore them for the moment.

“It's a thing. And I can curse.” Nightmare responded defensively, if a little childishly.

“Prove it then.”

“Fine! F-fuck!”

Ugh, and now he was involved. Turning around to face his brother he sighed disappointedly.

“Come on now brother, you know better than that.”

“Shift!”

Abandoning his coffee, the older brother turned and ran. He knew what would happen if he was caught and was not about to let it happen again so easily.

“Oh no you don't, get back here.”

A smile spread across the younger brother's face as he raced after his brother. Looked like he was able to feel again for the moment.

The older knew better than to use his magic. It left a distinct trail of negativity behind him, which would be fine if he wasn't running away from the one person who could sense it. He made that mistake once and would never make it again. So he ran like his life depended on it.

“Just face the consequences brother, you know you're only prolonging the inevitable!”

Dream knew his brother could sense his enjoyment, but he didn't care. He would get his brother in the end. He always did.

They passed Cross as they ran. Nightmare pushed him aside, not caring if he got hurt, his only thoughts were of escape.

“That wasn't very nice of you brother. You know better than to do that.”

The taller brother sped up. He could hear a smile in his brother's voice. That never meant well.

**********

Cross walked into the kitchen with a sore shoulder.

“Do either of you two know why I just saw Nightmare being chased by Dream?”

In lieu of an answer, the other two simply began laughing their asses off. Cross shrugged. ‘Guess I'll find out later.’

**********

Dream finally caught up to Nightmare. Looks like his tentacles were more of a hindrance in the narrow hallways of the castle, doing nothing but weight him down.

The younger brother was now dragging a grumbling brother back to the kitchen. He struggled at first, but had given up after a few minutes. Good, it was futile to resist.

“Stop grumbling brother, you knew this would happen,”

“Yeah, yeah.”

They reached the kitchen pretty quickly after that. Nightmare started struggling again when Dream began to move him off the ground by the sink. The three other skeletons watched as their boss was put through the same soapy punishment as they were.

“Now apologise to Cross for pushing him.”

“You're such a duck.”

“Thank you, I try. Now apologise unless you want to go again.”

”Fine, fine, I'll do it'll. I'm sorry for pushing you Cross.”

“It's okay?”

“That wasn't so hard was it now?”

“Ugh, can I have my coffee now?”

“Of course brother.”

Picking up his plate, Dream moved back over to the table. An amused expression made itself at home on his face when he saw the shocked looks on the other three skeletons’ faces as they watched their boss finish putting together his coffee, muttering about how he was a ‘sadistic little shirt’.

Nightmare moved over to the table a minute later, still looking a little disgruntled as he sat down between his brother and his underlings.

“I can't believe you're still holding that against me.”

“Really?”

“I suppose not.”

“Thought so.”

“I'll get you for something though, just you wait and see.”

“Sure you will.”

Maybe things really were improving between him and his brother.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading.
> 
> I hope you like the sibling moment I gave the twins, I think they deserved it after all that angst. Don't worry about Nightmare, he's fine, just a little put out. (Yes, he stole the soap thing from Dream for whenever he catches one of his boys cursing).
> 
> Fun fact:
> 
> Nightmare got into the habit of replacing curse words with other words and can't be bothered changing it. It's partly because he doesn't want Dream to hear him, partly to set a good example for his boys and partly because he isn't really a big fan of cursing anyways.
> 
> Have an enjoyable day. Remember to take time for yourself every once in a while ^-^🍊


	16. A Perspective

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We see what's going on in the wider world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you like the new chapter. Thank you all so much for 1200+ hits , 75 kudos and 12 bookmarks. This is seriously incredible. I never imagined so many people would read my story, let alone enjoy it, when I posted it, so thank you from the bottom of my heart.
> 
> Remember to take care of yourself ^-^🍊

Blue was… resolute.

**********

It had been two months, two weeks and five days since Blue last saw Dream. It had been two months, two weeks and five days too long since he'd seen Dream.

**********

_ When Dream was taken they were in the middle of a battle. Nightmares gang had been terrorising a pacifist timeline, so Blue and the other Star Sanses had gone to try stop them. It had been brutal out there, but the Stars had managed to get the upper hand, forcing the Bad Sanses to retreat. _

_ The youngest Star had turned around for just a second to check on Ink, who had taken a nasty hit to the leg near the end, when Nightmare had shot a tentacle towards Dream from halfway inside the portal. It was like everything was suddenly in slow motion. By the time he'd started moving the goopy skeleton had already grabbed his brother. _

_ Even though he knew he wouldn't be able to reach in time, Blue moved as fast as his aching body would let him to try and save his friend. He was almost touching the other's hand when he fell flat on his face, his legs giving in underneath him from overexertion. _

_ “It was nice talking to you, but now I've got what I wanted I'll be taking my leave. Bu-bye~.” _

_ And with that the portal closed. _

_ Blue was in shock. He didn't know what to do or think. Dream was gone, taken by his brother. The brother who had a vendetta against him. Robotically he moved to Ink, who was still on the ground injured. _

_ Moving on autopilot, the smallest Star carefully picked Ink up. With his friend holding him up the injured Star was able to make them a portal back to his house in the Doodlesphere, where they would be able to heal themselves in peace. There was always something that needed their attention back at the headquarters and they wouldn't be able to deal with that right now. _

_ The two remaining Stars healed themselves and each other in silence, neither were ready to talk about what had just happened. _

**********

Blue shook his head, leaving the memories to one side. It didn't do to dwell when he could be working to remedy the situation. He and Ink had spent all the time they could searching AUs for any sign of Dream. They were lucky Nightmare’s gang and Error had been quieter more recently so they didn't have to worry about fighting as often as they usually did.

They had also enlisted the help of the Lust Dream was friends with to travel universes in search of their mutual friend. Each of them went AU to AU separately, messaging the group chat every once in a while to check in and update the others on what they were doing. They had also put notices up on the Multiversal Under net to let them know if anyone had seen anything that could help them locate the missing Star.

Blue continued to move through Sugartale, leaving no rock unturned in his search. He knew that they would find Dream eventually. They had to. With everyday his friend was missing the more anxious he became. Lust and Ink weren't doing much better either. Lust looked like he was constantly on the edge of a full blown breakdown and Ink was having a hard time staying so focused on one thing for so long and had to take occasional breaks to create in the Doodleshpere.

Blue was having a hard time keeping it all together as he trudged through the whipped cream snow. He was absolutely terrified of what might be happening to Dream. Nightmare could be doing anything to him and there was nothing he could do about it.

What if he was hurt?

What if he was being tortured?

What if they were too late to save him?

...What if he was already dead?

What if when they found him, all that was left was a pile of dust?

No! He couldn't think that way. Dream was strong, he'd be alright! Blue just had to keep pushing forward, keep looking, and he'd find him. Besides, his friend would be upset if all he did was mope around all sad while he was gone. Best to stay upbeat and positive.

‘Just hang in there Dream, we're on our way.'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading.
> 
> I hope you liked the new perspective. I wanted to take a chapter to show how the kidnapping affected those closest to Dream. I feel like I've kinda been ignoring the implications of the kidnapping and I wanted to try and address that. Hopefully it worked.
> 
> Have a marvelous day. Remember to talk to others when you need to.


	17. A Dream

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream is doing his best, but he's really tired and wants to go back to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you like this chapter. I'm really tired right now, but I think this chapter is good enough.
> 
> TW: Self harm
> 
> There probably other triggers, but I can't think of them rn, please tell me if you think I should add a tw for smth.
> 
> Remember to take care of yourself ^-^🍊

Dream was… exhausted.

**********

_ Dream was running as fast as he could. He needed to stop, his legs were so tired they felt like they could give in at any second, but he couldn't. Stopping now would basically be a death sentence or might as well be. _

_ Skidding as he turned the next corner, he felt the cold, rough stone beneath his feet. He only had his socks on, but it was too late to do anything about it. He regretted not putting shoes on when he had the chance and now a spike of pain shot up his shins with every step. _

_ Dream wanted to cry. Wanted to turn around to see that it was all just a prank. Just a game. But he knew that if he turned around now he would be caught and he knew what would happen then. _

_ He would be thrown back in his too small cell and chained up. _

_ With that thought the small guardian managed to push himself to move faster. Hearing the ominous squelches behind him grow closer, he knew it wouldn't be enough. He thought back to just a few days ago. Everything seemed to be getting better between them. What had happened to set this off then? _

_ Dream wished he could remember, maybe then he could attempt to reason with his pursuers, but not a single thing came to mind. He shook the thoughts away, focusing back in on getting as far away from everyone as possible. The others were elsewhere in the castle after all. He needed to keep an eye out for anything out of place, lest he run right into a trap. _

_ The squelches were anything most close enough to touch him now. Thin streams of tears were running down his face. He was more terrified than he had ever been in his life. The thought of his cold and empty cell leaching all his energy from him in a slow, painful and prolonged death scared him almost as much as what Nightmare’s gang might do to him now he was on their bad side. _

_ Would they torture him? _

_ Would they starve him? _

_ Would they… do the unthinkable to him? _

_ Would they simply leave him there to rot? _

_ He had seen it once or twice in his travels. The loneliness drove them crazy. If their captors ever went back for them they would cling to the company, even if they hurt them. Desperate for any interaction. Anything. He didn't want to end up like that. _

_ Then he slipped. _

_ Dream felt a slimy tentacle wrap around him. It was over. There was nothing he could do to stop it as he was dragged back to hell. His other pursuers joined them as they went. He had never seen such smiles on and one's face before, they made him want to scream, to run, to escape, but his fear froze him in place. _

_ And the positivity coming from them. Oh Toby, the positivity. It was so cruel. The open enjoyment of his suffering felt like fire in the air, burning him as he could do naught but absorb it. _

_ After what seemed like an eternity they finally reached the room that had become his own personal hell. Turning around he saw them all in the doorway, malicious sadism rolling off them in waves. _

_ Then suddenly it wasn't them anymore, but Ink, Blue and Lust. For a brief moment Dream thought that they were there to save him, then he looked at their faces. They held a sorrowful resignation in them, but he could still feel the rancid positivity coming from them. _

_ Against his better judgement he moved towards them. _

_ “Please! Let me free! Please!” _

_ Their eyes turned towards him as one. _

_ “We can't. This is for your own good Dream. You've failed us all and you need to be punished. Once you prove you're good enough we'll let you out.” _

_ The three of them spoke in unison. Their faces changing to matching condescension. _

_ “Please! Please! I'll do anything! Anything! Just don't leave me here! Don’t leave me here alone! Please! Please!” _

_ “Goodbye~. Don't die on us now~.” _

_ Dream started screaming and banging at the door to be let out. Hoping, praying, that someone would hear and take Mercy on him. _

_ …But nobody came. _

**********

Dream woke up with a scream. He was covered in sweat and had fallen to the floor in his sleep. In his panic, Dream didn't realise that it had all been a dream. The pitch black of his room and the cold stone did nothing to help bring him back to reality.

Still believing himself to be in his old cell, he continued to cry out for someone to let him out. Begging someone to free him, saying he'd do anything they wanted as long as they let him out.

This continued on for a few minutes before he began to move, realising he wasn't the door anymore, when his foot hit against something hard and wooden. Confused, Dream reached out and grabbed the wooden thing. It was round and smooth, but it couldn't be. It couldn't even be there, since the cell was empty of everything but him.

Moving his hand up the impossible thing until he felt soft fabric, he continued to wonder how this could be here. But couldn't find a good answer, to his own question. He turned back on his eyelights  when had he turned them off to see better, and looked around, the dim lights emanating from his sockets shining a faint light around the room. Looking at what he was touching, he found that it was a bed.

‘But there isn't a bed in my cell. Nor is there there a wardrobe. This almost looks like the room I was in before…’

Taking a second to look at his surroundings, he saw that it was indeed his room.

‘But I was just in the cell?’

Gazing up at the bed, he saw his bedsheets falling of the bed. Like he had fallen off in… his… sleep…

Oh. So it was only a dream. Heh, dream. The guardian let out a sigh of relief when he remembered that no one had their rooms near his. He would have woken them all up if they had.

He didn't think he'd be able to go back to sleep straight away. So he scanned his room for something to do for a few minutes before he attempted to sleep again.

The top drawer of the bedside table drew his eye. The drawer that held the scissors. He scooted over to the drawer, not bothered to get up just yet. He reached up from his spot on the ground and opened it before groping around inside until he found what he was looking for.

Scooting over to the window, he used the wall to pull himself upright. Moving the curtains aside, Dream made his eyelights as bright as he could while pushing up his sleeves. Opening the scissors, he pressed the blade against an empty spot on his arm.

The spot didn't stay empty for long and he stuck the tip of his finger in the small divot in his arm. Little dead of blood made themselves known on the formerly smooth, white arm. The skeleton watched for a second, before repeating the process on his other arm.

He was ready to stop there, however, an impulse to cut his first rib and T1 vertebrae loudly made its presence known. Too tired to think of fighting it, he carefully raised the scissors to his neck. As steadily as possibly, Dream made a cut through each bone, one at a time. This time he didn't encourage bleeding, not wanting the damage to be too noticeable whenever he wore something with a lower neckline than usual.

Taking another few minutes to calm himself while looking out the window. Afterwards he decided to turn back and head to bed, the cold seeping into his bones. The stinging coming from the new cuts helped to keep his thoughts from getting too loud.

He fell into a dreamless sleep soon after.

**********

“Morning.” Cross greeted the exhausted looking Dream. Ignoring the other, he put the kettle on and went over to the cupboards.

“Looks like someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning.” Dust joked.

He shot him a look, but still didn't bother responding. Instead he reached for the bread to make toast. He  _ really _ didn't have any energy for people today. He put his head down on the counter in a vague attempt to get just just a few more seconds of rest.

He was left to stay like that until he heard the kettle finish boiling. Grabbing the biggest mug he could find, he used it to make himself a cup of coffee.

“You know that's Boss’ mug, right?”

“I don't care.”

Hearing the toast pop up, he turned back around and began buttering his toast.

“He's gonna be mad when he finds out about this.”

“I literally couldn't give less of a shit unless you're planning on being a fucking snitch.”

“I'm not gonna snitch. I'm just saying.”

“Okay.”

Dream finished up spreading the butter and moved to the counter to eat and drink away from everyone else. He was so tired. He hoped the coffee would help wake him up, but it'd likely be a coin toss as to whether or not it'd actually help.

Then Nightmare walked in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading.
> 
> I was checking my word count when I finished the first section bc I like to check how much I've written every so often and it's the same length as last chapter lol.
> 
> Ik that that probably wasn't the best place to finish the chapter, but I was genuinely having a hard time staying awake by the time I finished writing
> 
> Also, oof, more angst, sorry Dream
> 
> Have a cordial day. Remember to have breakfast ^-^🍊


	18. A Monster

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Don't mess with Dream's coffee.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoy the chapter. I'm really tired (as usual XD) so it's not the best, but I hope it's okay.
> 
> Take care of yourself ^-^🍊

Dream was… surprised.

**********

“Mornin’ Boss.”

Cross was the first to speak up in an attempt to ease the suddenly tense atmosphere. It didn't do much, but Dust appreciated the effort all the same.

“Morning.”

With that Nightmare set out towards the cupboards to get himself his morning cup of coffee. Dream saw him search through the cupboards looking for the mug he was currently using, but found that he couldn't care less.

He focused on his toast and black coffee. His hands were feeling particularly cold without the usual warmth his gloves provided him and the fresh cup of black coffee help a lot. He saw Nightmare start to get more agitated when he still couldn't find his mug. It was almost funny.

The guardian took a long drink of the hot coffee, ignoring how it burnt his mouth. He was too tired for this many people.

Nightmare finally gave up looking after another few minutes. In fact, Dream had almost finished his toast when his brother turned around and spotted him drinking using his mug.

“Dream.”

“Brother.”

“That's my mug.”

“So it is.”

“Then why, pray tell, are you using it?”

“It's the biggest mug.”

“I know, that's why I chose it.”

The two skeletons in the background tensed up as they watched the scene unfold. Both wanting to leave, but also wanting to see what would happen.

“Well done on choosing a nice mug then.” Dream took a sip of his coffee.

“I'd quite like my mug back now.”

“I'm afraid I'm still using it, you'll have to wait.”

“I shouldn't have to wait to use  _ my _ mug.”

“Well, that's unfortunate.”

“Give me the mug now Dream.”

“No.”

“Give me my mug now or I'll take it from you.”

“Touch my coffee and I'll fucking stab you. I don't have the energy for this shit.”

The two onlookers were startled by this turn of events. They looked at each other, ready to run if they needed to as Nightmare approached his sibling.

Putting his coffee down so he didn't spill anything, Dream summoned a small arrow and pointed it towards his brother.

“Don't touch my fucking coffee.”

“For Pete’s sake, fine. I'll leave the mug alone.”

“Good.”

Releasing his hold on the weapon, Dream looked down at his hand in confusion.

‘How did I do that?!’

Deciding to put this to one side until he was alone, he finished his breakfast quickly. He might have won the argument, but he didn't want to get on his brother's nerves more than he already had. He might be tired, but he wasn't stupid. He knew he was still their captive even if it didn't feel like it as much anymore, last night's dream had been a cruel reminder of what they could do to him if they chose to.

Making quick work of the washing up, the guardian went straight to the library. Halfway there he remembered that he still needed to ask about washing his clothes. He sighed as he mentally put it on tomorrow's to do list.

**********

Settling down with a book beside him, Dream thought of his sudden ability to use magic.

He wanted to try to use it again now he was more awake and aware of what he was doing. The first thing he wanted to try and do was make a portal, since he already knew that summoning his arrows wouldn't leave him with anything he could meaningfully defend himself with against the more experienced close range fighters. Closing his eyes and focusing on where he wanted to go, he tried to summon a portal.

Opening his eyes he saw that a small portal had opened in front of him. It was only about as big as his hand, but it was something. It was proof that he was getting stronger after how weak he was not so long ago. He knew he likely wouldn't be able to make them any bigger any time soon, but something was better than nothing even if he could use his portals for anything.

Actually, there was one thing he knew he could do with a portal this size.

Opening a new portal, Dream reached his hand through. After a moment of awkwardly wiggling his hand around, he felt his hand touch a cold can. With a quick peek through the portal, he grabbed a can and closed the portal.

The guardian opened the can, careful to make sure it didn't spill as it had done before. He took a sip before allowing himself a giggle at his drink of choice. He always found the fact that it was called ‘Monster’ funny.

With the exploration of the limits of his magic finished, Dream opened the book on top. It was called ‘You Cannot Give Up Just Yet’. It was about a post-neutral ending King Papyrus.

Nothing like some good old angst in the morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading.
> 
> I just realised how long it's been since I've brought up specific fanfics and I that that that's a shame.
> 
> The fanfics mentioned was 'You Cannot Give Up Just Yet' by KaptinKate. Here's the link:  
> https://archiveofourown.org/works/11906292/chapters/26900274#workskin
> 
> I haven't finished reading it yet, but it's been good so far.
> 
> Have a splendid day. May you live in uninteresting times ^-^🍊


	19. A Refection

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream thinks that drinking something called Monster while being a monster himself is exceedingly funny.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you like the chapter. I'm pretty tired rn, but I had a Monster earlier (Centra had Ultra Black in today and it only cost about one fifty, what else was I supposed to do except buy it. They never have it in do not buying it would have been a missed opportunity) and a lollipop.
> 
> Remember to take care of yourself ^-^🍊

Dream was… irritated.

**********

When Nightmare walked into the kitchen that morning he expected to sit down, have some coffee and go about his day like normal. What he didn't expect was to find his brother looking dead tired drinking coffee out of  _ his _ mug and then threaten him when he tried to take it back.

He also didn't expect Dream to be able to use magic.

He knew that there was a chance that the skeleton would be able to use some of his magic again at some stage, but he didn't think it would be so soon. Especially since he hadn't been eating properly and the world was almost completely empty. But seeing as he summoned that arrow he knew that his calculations were wrong.

Thankfully Dream had only summoned a small arrow. If he had had enough magic he would have probably summoned a bigger one, therefore his ability to perform magic shouldn't cause any problems. If they did end up being an issue, well…

They didn't have that cell for nothing.

And as much as he'd hate having to do it, he would do it if needs must. He couldn't have his brother escaping from him after all. No matter what he had learnt or how they had grown closer, he refused to let anyone get in the way of his plans.

“Hey Boss, you've been staring into space for the last five minutes. Are you okay?”

Nightmare shook himself and focused back in on the present.

“I'm fine Cross, I just got distracted for a moment there.”

“Oh, alright then. It's just that you've been acting a little odd since what happened with Dream a few minutes ago.”

“I just noticed that he'd been able to summon an attack is all. I was trying to figure out if that could be a problem, but I don't think it will.”

“Oh, that makes sense I guess.”

“Wait, did that mean Dream would have actually stabbed you if you had taken the coffee.” Dust cut in.

“Meh, probably.”

“Damn, I would  _ not _ have expected that from him, yanno?”

“I don't know, he's been acting differently for the last while.”

The room went silent after that, none of them were entirely sure what else to say. There was nothing else to really talk about and no one wanted to bring up what had happened with Dream again.

**********

Dream was happily making his way through his pile of books. And by happily, he meant emotional falling apart at the angst but in the fun way. He had started a new book called ‘I'm The Loser Of The Game (You Didn't Know You Were Playing)’ and was having a blast with all the Papyrus angst.

Papyrus angst always seemed to hit him harder than Sans angst. He thought that this might have been because he was closer to a Papyrus or a swap Sans than than a regular Sans. Then again, Dreamtale had been a far cry from pretty much all other AUs.

He also felt kinda wacky, but that was probably because he was on his fourth Monster (he laughed to himself as he thought of the name, it was always funny to him in an ironic way). This many energy drinks probably wasn't good for him, but eh, neither were random impulses to harm himself, so his common sense could go fuck itself.

It wasn't long before Dream had finished this story, but instead of moving on to the next one, the tired skeleton set the book aside and looked out the window. He didn't feel like moving straight (heh, ‘straight’) on to the next book. Instead he decided to take a moment to look down upon the world that had been brought to ruins by its own foolishness, taking a sip of his drink every so often.

There was something beautiful in the destruction. The world had been dead for so long that there wasn't much left of those who had made this place their home. Time had not been kind to the unstable buildings and most of them had either collapsed or had become overgrown with plants as mother nature reclaimed what was her’s.

The quiet serenity of it left the guardian with a calm feeling in his soul.

Eventually he finished his can of Monster and moved on to the next book, but the little bit of peace didn't leave him for a long while. The moment of tranquillity helped lift his mood after last night.

**********

Dream had spent the last few hours reading. He had just finished the last book he had gotten to read that day. As he put the books back where he had gotten them, he realised that he would need to go back to the kitchen to bin the empty cans.

“Fuck. I really didn't want to have to talk to anyone today after this morning. But I don't want to have to deal with the cans later. Might as well deal with them now while I'm still fully awake I guess.”

Before he left, he made sure to crush the cans so they'd be easier to carry… and maybe because it was kinda fun. Once he had finished up in the library he quickly made his way to the kitchen. The kitchen was a bit of a walk, but it wasn't terrible. At least it wouldn't have been if he wasn't already tired and juggling the cans. It also didn't help that his knees ached from being kept in the same position for most of the day.

By the time Dream had reached the living room he was ready to fall into bed the moment he got back to his bedroom.

All of this put together caused him to trip over when his foot caught on the floor after he didn't lift it high enough. The positive guardian managed to catch himself in time, but dropped all his cans in the process.

“I swear to Toby, I am going to Kermit a homicide.” Dream said in frustration. “I don't have the energy for this kind of bullshit.”

“Uh, what was that?”

Dream, in his exhaustion, hadn't noticed another person. Turning towards the voice, he saw Killer looking over at him confused.

“Oh, I just dropped what I was carrying. Sorry if I bothered you.”

“I was more concerned about the vague threat of homicide actually, though I am kinda curious as to what you could have dropped to make so much noise.”

Dream straightened up after collecting all the cans that had fallen to the ground.

“It was just some cans, see?”

“You were drinking?! How?!”

“No, just an energy drink called Monster, which I find fucking hilarious.”

“I still don't understand how you got it though. If you could make portals you would have just left.”

“I can only make small portals.”

“Oh, okay then.”

Killer looked to be considering something, so Dream took the opportunity to make an offer.

“Here, if you don't say anything about this, I'll grab you some vodka. Deal?”

“I probably shouldn't.”

“Well I would have left if I was able to make a big enough portal and I doubt I'll be able to make anything like that anytime soon, so no harm no foul, right?”

“Alright then, I'd suppose it wouldn't hurt.”

“Grand so.”

And with that, Dream opened up a portal to some random off licence. He grabbed the bottle of vodka quickly before anyone could notice him. Looking down at the bottle he had grabbed, he saw that it had a pride flag on it. Biting back laughter, he handed the alcohol over.

“There you go.”

“Thanks.”

With that ordeal over with, the Star Sans quickly made his way into the kitchen and disposed of the cans. And then he realised.

“I could have just binned them using a portal. Fuck!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading.
> 
> I just realised that there is a bit of an inconsistency that I felt the need to clear up, since I don't think it'll come up in the fic. It's about what happens to AUs when Dream gets upset. Basically there are two things that can happen. If he's only negative for a little bit (he has about 1-2 minutes before his negativity would start causing problems) or not that negative, it just drains happiness from AUs since it's his emotional state that dictates how positive the Multiverse is. However, if he's very negative or negative for long enough (10 minutes plus) universes that're already low in positivity will start to colapse in order to maintain the balance. I hope that was an okay explanation, but if you have any questions just leave them in the comments and I'll do my best to answer them in a timely manner.
> 
> The fic I mentioned in this chapter was 'I'm The Loser Of The Game (You Didn't Know You Were Playing)' by Yessica. I recommend you check it out. Here's the link to it:  
> https://archiveofourown.org/works/21471379/chapters/51169867
> 
> Have a phenomenal day. Remember to do things that make you happy or content we hen you can ^-^🍊


	20. A Search

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream realises that he comes from an AU.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoy the chapter. I can't believe this is already at 20 chapters. Or that I've managed to update everyday, I was sure updates would start to slow around chapter 7/8 and here I am, still posting daily.
> 
> Remember to take care of yourself ^-^🍊

Ink was… troubled.

**********

It was the next day and Dream had gotten himself another can of Monster. (He had mostly gotten himself one so he could mess with people at breakfast, but that wasn't important.) Before going to get some food, he decided to head over to the library to grab a book to read while he ate. He wanted to avoid as much conversation as possible after what had happened yesterday.

At the library, he thought of what he wanted to read about.

“Hmm… I haven't actually read anything about myself yet… yes, this'll be interesting at the very least.”

Moving through the maze of bookcases quickly, he searched for some Dreamtale AUs. He hoped it wouldn't take long to find some and he was right. It only took him a few minutes to find one that looked interesting. It was called ‘Turn Back Time’.

Pulling it out to get a better look at it he spotted the ‘Major Character Death’ at the top of the list of things to expect in the book (what he had taken to calling the ‘tags’ a while back) although it also mentioned fluff so hopefully it wasn't too bad, although the description _did_ say that it was him who died in this.

Before he moved away he noticed another, smaller, book that looked like it could be interesting. ‘(Short one-shot) Tea Party of my dreams’ was its name and it seemed to be a short story about a version of him that was a little off his rocker. Cool.

With his chosen books in hand, he left for the kitchen, not wanting to wait too long to get breakfast in case it got too close to lunchtime for him to be comfortable with.

Looking at the clock up on the living room wall, he saw that it was still early enough in the morning. Well, not actually _that_ early, but he was used to basing off how early it was by what other Sanses would consider early.

Once inside the actual kitchen, he got the same breakfast as he had the last few days. He would have gotten something different, but this was the only thing he knew was okay for him to get. He was fine with it though, he didn't want to rock the boat and he quite liked toast.

Once he had put the bread on to toast he began the self-proclaimed one shot. It only took him a few minutes to finish, but it was pretty good all in all. Error was kinda funny in it and part of him really wished he had that dust too. It would make things interesting at the very least.

“Wow, other me is on some wack shit, not gonna lie.”

“What did the other you do?”

Dream startled at Killer's question. He had forgotten that there were other people in the room and he certainly hadn't meant to speak aloud.

“Oh! Um, I was just reading some short thing where this other me had a tea party with some Alice in Wonderland vibes and he forced Error to go. Kinda weird, but entertaining all the same, I guess.”

“That sounds odd.”

“It was.”

“You've got me curious. You said it was short, right?”

“Yeah, it only took a few minutes to finish.”

“Frick it, I'm gonna read it.”

“Okay then.”

Turning back to the counter, he noticed his toast had popped up while he wasn't looking. He buttered each slice and then moved over to the table with his drink and remaining book.

“Whatcha got there?” Dust asked before he could disappear into his other book.

“A Monster. It's pretty good.”

“A what?”

The golden guardian took a sip of his drink before answering.

“A Monster. Didn't you hear me?”

He did his best to seem genuinely perplexed at the question. He knew he was being kinda mean, but the look of confusion on the other's face was too funny not to try messing with him just a little bit. Killer looked up at the two in amusement.

“Let me get this straight. You're drinking a _monster_?”

“Mhmm.”

“How the heck did you even get that?! And what kind of sicko would make such a drink?!”

“Where did I get my drink? Well that's a secret I'll never tell.”

“There's something seriously wrong with you. What kind of freak would do something like this?

“Can I tell him?” Killer cut in.

“You take all the fun out of it, but go on anyway.”

“It's an energy drink _called_ ‘Monster’, Dream was just messing with you.”

“You rat's toe.”

“The look on your face was hilarious, oh my stars.”

Now that the jig was up, he was laughing hard at poor Dust.

“Ah, sorry about that, it was just too good of an opportunity to pass up.”

With a “Hmph”, Dust turned away from him. After another minute, Killer handed the book back.

“Here. You were right, the other you has kinda lost his mind.”

“Yeah, that me was pretty weird.”

“You can say that again.”

Dream got a start on his book once the other two started talking between themselves.

**********

After breakfast Dream went back to the library and continued reading. He found it much more immersive than the other stories he had read, although that was probably because he was the person this story was about.

Once he had finished this book, he realised that he would need to go back through the bookcases to find more stories to read, since he had only gotten two books down earlier.

As he went to go put the books back, he noticed Ink’s name on the back of the larger book. He wondered how the other Star Sans was doing. He then had a sudden realisation.

‘Even if I can only make small portals right now, I can use them to try and contact the others!’

**********

Ink looked around at the AU he was currently in and tried to remember why he was there. He could see that it was a Spiraltale AU, but that was all he was sure of.

Reaching up to chew on a finger as he thought, his falanges brushed against his scarf. He was pretty sure he normally had a way of remembering important things, but he was having trouble remembering what it was right now.

This bothered him since it felt like he had just forgotten something important. His hand dropped down to fiddle with his scarf as he struggled to remember. His scarf… his scarf… his scarf!

He wrote things he needed to remember down on his scarf so he wouldn't forget as much. Dream had suggested it when he started having trouble remembering plans they had made together.

‘Okay, let's see. Here it is! ‘Look in different AUs for Dream. Check the group chat with Blue and Lust every hour. Make a note of every AU you've checked in the spreadsheet.’ Alright then, guess I'd better check the time.’

Pulling out his phone he looked at the time. It was around two to two, so he unlocked his phone and went into the shared group chat and let the others know that he had seen nothing unusual in Spiraltale and was going to move on to the next one. He then went to the spreadsheet and added Spiraltale 02 to the list.

Opening a portal to Spiraltale 03, he continued the search. Now that he had remembered that his friend was missing, he sped up his searching. He was upset that he had forgotten what had happened again.

There was once a time when his memory wasn't so bad, but that was long, _long_ ago. He missed that time. He missed being able to remember what he was going to do and what he had done clearly. Those days were the clearest in his mind. A while back he had gone to a Science Sans to see if anything could be done about his failing memory, but apparently it was something that could not be stopped or even slowed. The only thing he could do was to learn to live with it and try to adapt.

He knew that he often forgot important stuff after forgetting to write it down. And he was aware that every so often he'd forget something integral to his personality and change quite a lot. He didn't notice this himself, but he made sure to note it down in his phone’s calendar any time someone mentioned it.

Every time something big happened he would do his best to add it to his calendar so that even if he forgot, there was still a way for him to at the very least be aware of it. The other Stars also had access to it, just in case he forgot to add something.

He was mostly just glad that his strange memory issues didn't affect memories that were long term, only short term.

Looking around Ink realised he was at the start of the ruins. Checking his scarf once more to double check that he was doing the right thing, he moved onwards.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed this chapter.
> 
> The fics I mentioned in this were (1) '(Short one-shot) Tea Party of my dreams' by Uketello and (2) 'Turn Back Time' by qweezy0w0. Links are here:  
> 1)https://archiveofourown.org/works/14954135  
> 2)https://archiveofourown.org/works/23102170/chapters/55271908
> 
> They're both great and really well written. I highly recommend you check them out when you get the chance.
> 
> Have a sansational day. Remember that, while you can drink sugary drink and what not if you want to, you should try your best to drink some water as well ^-^🍊


	21. A Hunt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream looks for his friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you like this chapter. I woke up at 2:30 this after noon and I'm still dead tired! This is a conspiracy XD
> 
> Remember to take care of yourself ^-^🍊

Dream was… distressed.

**********

The first thing Dream did upon realising this information was to open up a portal to Ink’s usual spot in the Doodlesphere. There wasn't anyone there. In fact, it looked like there hadn't been any one there for a long time. The was covering the normally well-used art supplies strewn around the place.

“Okay, relax, maybe Blue is home.”

Opening up a new portal into Blue’s bedroom, he found no sign of the other. His Chara had made a promise to Papyrus not to reset and it seemed like they had done a good job of keeping it from the looks of the Royal-Guard-in -training’s bed, which looked like no one had slept in it in a good while.

Creating new portals around the house showed that the whole place had a deserted, unlived feeling throughout. There was even gone off food in the cupboards and the fruit on the counter barely looked like fruit anymore. Blue would never have stood for such a thing.

“Stay calm, Lust’s usually home around this time.”

With that he switched his portal to one that looked into Lust’s house. He was careful to keep them in spots where his friend's Papyrus wouldn't see. They had talked about it long ago and decided they didn't want to drag Papyrus into the Multiverse long ago. They didn't want to risk him seeing one of the more gruesome universes. Lust had thrown up the first time he'd see one and he didn't want Papyrus to end up traumatised by accident.

Looking around the house, it showed no sign that his best friend had been home any time recently. At his third disappointment he started frantically opening new portals to anywhere his friends might be.

He even took a quick look at Ink’s spot in Outertale. There was no Ink there, however Error was there. He closed that portal quickly enough. Error might not be a part of his brother's gang, but they seemed to work together often enough that if he was seen his brother would soon find out.

Dream closed the last portal defeatedly.

“It's okay. It's fine. They're probably just out looking for you. Maybe if you leave them a note…”

Dream turned to get a better look at the library. He knew most libraries had a desk near the front with office supplies in it, but he didn't think there was one in here. Still, he figured, it was probably worth checking anyway.

Moving to the top of the room, he began a quick search, not wanting to waste any time. There was nothing obvious so he moved in to check along the walls. There didn't end up being anything there so he left and headed towards his bedroom, careful not to move too quickly in case someone saw him and thought he looked suspicious.

He arrived at his room soon enough. First, he checked his bedside table. He had the vague memory of seeing a notepad and pen in there with the scissors.

There wasn't anything in the top drawer and the only other thing that was in the bedside table was a box of tissues in the bottom drawer and the scissors, which he had moved to hide behind it.

“Heh, I'll be seeing you later~.”

Dream laughed at his own joke. Putting the scissors back, he moved to the wardrobe. Pushing clothes out of his way as he looked, he still found nothing. Moving away from the wardrobe, he looked around the room but saw no other place where what he was looking for could be.

The kitchen! Maybe there would be something there and he'd be able to get a look in the living room at the same time. There was only one small problem, he needed an excuse for being in the kitchen. He hadn't gone in there outside of breakfast, so going in there in the middle of the day would look wrong.

‘I need something to do in the kitchen. Let's see… not food, they know by now that I wouldn't bother going down there for that. Hmm… oh! I could say I'm getting a drink of water. That's something I  _ should _ be able to get away with. Alright then, let's go!”

With that, Dream set off to the kitchen for a ‘glass of water’. Actually now that he thought about it, he was pretty thirsty. Now it wouldn't be a lie if he said he was thirsty.

Once again going at a quick, but unassuming pace he made his way to the kitchen. He passed Dust and Cross on the couch on his way through the living room. Thankfully neither paid any attention to him and he got to his destination without incident.

After getting his glass of water, the guardian leant against the counter sipping slowly as he scanned the room for anything he could use to leave a message for his friends.

A few minutes later he admitted defeat and allowed his mind to look back over some of the stories he had gotten to read. He thought of the earlier stories he had found. There was the one with Flowey, there was the one with the Yandere Papyrus. He finished his water quick enough, but didn't end up putting it down or anything, just holding it in his hands fidgeting with it.

His train of thought led him to thinking about some of the Horrortale characters and how the changes affected them. He thought about Toriel’s fire and how painful it must be for poor Aliza when she was killed with it. Which led him to thinking about Grillby.

‘Poor Grillby, stuck burning alive after the magic in the air stopped being enough to prevent his own fire from burning his soul. I wish I had been able to help him.’

A small laugh escaped from the smaller guardian's mouth. He attempted to push it back.

“Stop that, it isn't funny,” he quietly berated himself even as he felt another laugh begin to bubble up.

As much as he wanted to he couldn't get his mind to move on from Grillby’s unfortunate situation. How the poor man was constantly in agonising pain. How everyone had to watch. How his face was stuck in a silent scream of anguish.

At this Dream broke down laughing hard.

“That's not funny. Not even a little bit. What the fuck.”

He kept laughing.

It felt like he couldn't stop. Every time he felt like he was about to stop he'd think of Grillby and be sent back into a fit of laughter. He knew he shouldn't laugh and he didn't want to laugh, but he let out hearty laughs anyway.

“Oh my Stars. That is so fucked up. Shit. That's so incredibly fucked up. It is absolutely horrifying.”

Eventually, the two in the living room went into the kitchen to find out what the laughter and the occasional statements were about. When they came in they saw Dream leaning against the counter with his arms wrapped around his midsection as he was somewhat bent over laughing.

“Um are you okay there Dream?”

Dust was the first to speak up. Cross backed up slightly at the sight of the guardian's uncontrollable laughter.

“I'm fine apart from the fact that I can't stop laughing at something incredibly not funny.”

He was laughing even as he spoke.

“Oh, uhh… what is it that you're laughing at?”

“Someone stuck eternally burning alive.”

Dream didn't want to mention Grillby or Horrortale. He knew that mentioning their friend's home AU would likely not go down well in this context.

“Yeah, that…  _ really _ isn't funny.”

“I  _ know _ .”

“Then why are you laughing?”

“I don't know.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading.
> 
> Yeah, I may or may not have had the laughing thing happen to me and though 'Hey, you know what I could put Dream through next?'
> 
> Fun fact:  
> I tend to buy at least two Monsters when I'm buying Monster. I'm not very smart.
> 
> I was going to share a headcanon I have, but I'm too tired to so I'll share it tomorrow.
> 
> Have a day as great as Papyrus. Remember to keep a pen on you as often as possible, you never know when it'll come in handy ^-^🍊


	22. A Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream does stuff (Sorry, I just don't know what to put here).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoy this chapter. I started this later than usual and I think the quality might have suffered for it, but hopefully it isn't too bad.
> 
> TW: Carving, Self harm
> 
> Remember to take care of yourself ^-^🍊

Dream was… impetuous.

**********

It took longer Dream than he would have liked for the laughter to subside. By the time it had stopped his eye sockets were damp and his ribs and cheek bones were achy.

Cross had left the kitchen not long after entering, obviously uncomfortable being around the less than stable guardian, but Dust stayed through the whole thing. He looked to be fascinated by the unusual behaviour.

“So now that you've finally calmed down, what was all that about?”

“I honestly don't know. One minute I was just standing there, drinking my water, the next I was laughing my ass off at someone stuck eternally burning alive and couldn't stop.”

The whole experience was incredibly unsettling for Dream. He'd never felt anything like it before. Even though he was laughing, he felt like breaking down crying.

“Wow, that's really gotta suck. Like randomly laughing at something that sick is just messed up.”

“Yeah, it's pretty messed up, just like me. uwu”

“I guess you are, if you're doing stuff like- wait what the heck was that last word?”

“Oh, the ‘uwu’.”

“Yeah, that, what was it?”

“Uh, I'm pretty sure it's a habit it's picked up to make serious or upsetting statements seem less like that.”

“You are one strange skeleton.”

“I mean, you're not wrong.”

“Whelp, this is boring. And awkward. I'm going back out to Cross.”

“Fair enough. Tell him said sorry if I weirded him out back there.”

“Okay I guess. See ya.”

“See ya.”

Dream turned back around to his glass. He didn't want to just leave it there, so he began washing it up. 

**********

Dream was back in the library. He had given up hope of finding something to leave a message with, so he just went back to reading. If he also grabbed another can of Monster that was nobody's business but his own.

This time he was reading a story about a sad Papyrus called ‘The Masks We Wear’ and he had a story about an Underfell abusive Papyrus abused Sans lined up to go next. It was called ‘This too shall pass’ and seemed pretty interesting.

After getting back into the groove of reading, he got really sucked into the different worlds. He ended up spending so long in the library that there was barely any light left to read by when he finally put his last book down.

The guardian made his way back to his room quickly after that, not wanting to stay up too late in case he woke up late the next day. He didn't really like getting up late because it meant that he had less time to read.

It only took him a few minutes to get ready for bed, but there was one last thing Dream wanted to get done before he settled down for the night.

Reaching into the pocket of his pants, the Star Sans pulled out a small knife. He had smuggled it out of the kitchen after he finished washing his glass. When letting his mind wander as he was drying the glass he got the urge to take the knife to use it on himself. He got the strange yet persistent impulse to take it to his arm and carve two words into it.

‘LIFE’ and ‘DEATH’

Dream took the knife, figuring that if it didn't go away he might after was well. He stole a small, yet sharp knife he found in one of the drawers and left it in his pocket. Throughout the day his mind wandered back to the thought of carving those words into his arms every so often.

So here he was now. Sleeves rolled up. Knife out. Ready to carve those very words into his arms. He decided that ‘LIFE’ should go on the left and ‘DEATH’ should go on the right.

Very carefully, he brought a shaky hand to his left arm and started cutting. It wasn't very easy. Writing the small letters in his own bones was quite the challenge. The blade was okay at doing its job, but occasionally Dream had to go over a cut to make it connect with another one properly, which was a pain in the arse when it happened.

After about ten minutes give or take of hard work, he switched arms and began the second carving. It took a bit longer this time since this word was longer and had some harder letters, but it wasn't too bad all things considered.

Looking down at his lightly bleeding hard work, he was proud of the two clear words now engraved on both his radii facing in towards him. He knew that they were almost definitely going to scar since he used a much sharper blade than any other time he'd made an incision on his bones, but couldn't find it in himself to care. He was honestly kind of happy that it would be permanent, as stupid any that may seem.

Now that the tiring process of carving his own bones was done, he looked over to his bedside table.

‘Surely a few more cuts tonight wouldn't make  _ that _ much of a difference.”

Moving over to the drawer he left the scissors hidden in, he quickly took out the scissors and hid the knife in there on the off chance someone came into his room and found a knife just lying around.

Unlike before where he had to stay fully concentrated on getting the cuts right, this time he could savour the pain. Starting with his arms, he left two slashes on each arm. Next his hips, leaving a cut on each side. Finally, he lifted up his top. Opening the scissors as far as he possibly could, he dragged the scissors down along his ribs like a xylophone, pressing against them hard.

It was all so satisfying. Although, he knew that his ribs and arms would feel irritated and itchy in the days to come since they were in places where fabric would be rubbing against them a lot.

‘What a pain that's going to be. Heh, pain.’

Tired from the frantic searching earlier in the day and the late hour, Dream climbed into his bed. Feeling his body's aching, he drifted off into a very pleasant sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading.
> 
> Okay so last chapter I said that I'd put one of my Undertale headcanons here so here you go:
> 
> So you know the way that if you play through Undertale more than once, characters will get a feeling of deja vu. Well, Papyrus seems to have the strongest of this for what I've seen (I haven't gotten the chance to actually play the game yet so this is from videos of the game that use in game footage). Sans, while he is the most out right on out remembering resets, seems to only have a good recollection of in timeline resets (for the purposes of this I'll be calling them 'repeats'). My headcanon is that recollection of resets and repeats comes from natural determination. Flowey is an exception for this since he has high enough levels of determination in him to do his own resets. However you would do well to note that he doesn't seem to actually remember resets, only repeats. Undyne doesn't seem to make much of a mention of the resets or experience much deja vu, but that woukd be because her determination is implied to be caused by the strange tea Alphys gives her.
> 
> Sans, at the start of all the resets, had a strong determination before Flowey started messing with the timelines. Sans slowly lost his determination over the resets, but the resets count your determination levels at the start of the first reset as your determination for that set of resets. So Sans could remember Flowey's resets pretty well. However when we take over the the timeline, Sans has a lot less determination, but due to his past experiences with resets, is still able to recall repeats.
> 
> Papyrus, however, starts off Flowey's resets without much determination and I'm going to say he didn't have much confidence (this is a bit of an assumption, but not an unreasonable one in my opinion). The last reset Flowey does boosts Papyrus' confidence and makes him determined to join the Royal Guard. Thus when the new set of resets begins, Papyrus is much more aware of the resets than thever others, although he doesn't have a very good memory of the repeats. Well, either that or he hides it.
> 
> Anyway, so yeah. That's one of my Undertale theories/headcanons. I'm actually particularly proud of this because I came up with it myself andown it's not just one I agree with.
> 
> The fics mentioned in this chapter were 'This too shall pass' by Thewifeofkingmidas and 'The Masks We Wear' by Eekaachu96. Here are the links:
> 
> https://archiveofourown.org/works/5571666/chapters/12844143
> 
> https://archiveofourown.org/works/16837300
> 
> (Wow, this note ended up being pretty long)
> 
> Have a vivacious day. Remember to keep things as tidy as you are able to when you can =^-^=🍊


	23. A Detonation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream goes and has some fun with Killer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you like this chapter. I started writing this earlier than usual and I think it turned out better for it.
> 
> Remember to take care of yourself ^-^🍊

Dream was… exhilarated.

**********

Dream didn't really feel like reading today. When he woke up that morning he could tell that he was too fidgety and unfocused to pay any attention to words on a page.

He got ready for the day and made his way down to the kitchen for breakfast quickly enough. He had thought of something he could do that day, all he needed to do was get someone involved and he had an idea of who he could convince to join him.

In the kitchen everything was more or less the same as usual, apart from Cross who seemed more uncomfortable around the guardian than before which was a shame because he was finally starting to seem more comfortable with him. Anyone who had been present for yesterday's incident seemed to just want to ignore it and pretend like it never happened, which he was perfectly fine with.

Everyone except Nightmare was in the room, which suited Dream. He didn't really want to ask his brother. As much as he cared about the taller guardian, it was a little draining to work through the strain built up over time and he didn't feel like dealing with that today. Maybe tomorrow he'd try to do something with his brother?

Anyway, he took his time getting his usual meal plus a cup of tea because no one can say you're not allowed to have tea when you're in their house, that'd just be plain rude.

Looking down at the others in the room, Dream began mentally figuring out who he could get to join him. Cross wasn't very comfortable around him, so that was a no-go right there. Horror seemed to be more okay with him than before, but he'd be a little nervous to attempt asking him for anything. Dust, while he seemed pretty chill, didn't look like he'd be willing to join him in anything on the off chance they got in trouble.

Which left Killer. Killer seemed to be the most likely to go along with him. And he could always bribe him with alcohol, that appeared to work well the last time.

‘Hmm… would it be better to use the same thing as last time or something different?’ Dream contemplated. ‘I know! I'll just ask him what he wants.’

Killer seemed to have arrived down to breakfast later than the other three. This was good, it meant that he'd probably be the last to leave. In fact, they seemed to be nearly finished. Happy with how things were playing out, Dream grabbed his food and sat down at the table.

Before long, the only people left in the room were the guardian and the murderer.

“Got any plans for the day?” Dream said awkwardly. He had no idea how to start this conversation, but hopefully it'd end up okay in the end.

“Nothing in particular, why?” Killer seemed suspicious as he spoke, the guardian hoped that the suspicion wouldn't last long.

“Well, I have an idea of what I'd like to do today, but I'd need to leave the castle. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to do that, however, I figured that if I went out with someone it'd probably be okay. And I figured you might get a kick out of what I want to do. Also the castle's big and I don't really know my way around it.” The last sentence was much quieter than the rest.

“What is it that you want to do then?” Killer still seemed wary, but curious about what was being proposed.

“Well, a while back I learnt how to make explosives. I was thinking of going out to the city and blowing random shit up. It's already destroyed, so it's not like it'd be any different than before.”

“That sounds fun, but also like it could get me into trouble. Is there anything else in it for me?”

This was good. Killer seemed open to doing it, but obviously remembered their previous deal and wanted something more out of it.

“I'll get you a bottle of whatever you want if you come with me.”

“‘Kay, I'm in.”

“Great. We head off after food?”

“Sure.”

“Grand so. And what would you like me to grab you?”

“A bottle of Grillby’s hardcore whisky, thanks.”

“Coming right up.”

Opening up a small portal, he grabbed the drink before the bartender could notice.

“There ya go.”

“Thanks.”

“Just don't drink it before we head out. I don't want you blowing your hand off because you were drunk.”

“Fair’s fair suppose.”

“You wanna drop that off in your room. By the time you get back here I should be done.”

“Sounds good to me.”

And with that, Killer headed out the door.

**********

The two skeletons were heading out of the castle into the town. When they found a spot a bit away from the castle that was more or less clear of rubble, they decided to settle down and get started.

Making a portal, Dream grabbed the supplies they needed to make some detonators along with two other regular explosives so that they could make some even bigger explosions at the end.

“Wait,”Killer spoke up,”Let's grab some fireworks as well to make a couple of even cooler looking explosions.”

“Oh my stars, yes!”

This was going to be awesome.

**********

The first thing that the duo did after getting the explosives ready, was pick their first victim. They found a small shed, which looked perfect for blowing up.

“Let's start with the detonators and work our way up to the fireworks.”

They grabbed a few of their homemade detonators and hooked them up so that they'd all go off when the ends of the wires connected with the big car battery Dream had ‘acquired’ for them for them to use.

“You ready?”

“Let's go!”

“3… 2… 1… and-”

There was a loud noise as the bomb went off and both skeletons were incredibly grateful for the hearing protection that the golden eyed skeleton had gotten for them. They might not have ears, ears but they still have the little sensitive bones that made up the eardrums and neither of them wanted to be stuck hearing an unwanted ringing for who knows how long.

They blew up various different different small structures this way until a few hours later when they ran out of the DIY explosives.

“Alright then, next up is the C4.”

“Nice, there’s a house over there that I think is kinda ugly. It could use a little ‘remodeling’ don't ya think?”

“Indeed. And as responsible members of society, we'll give it a helping hand, won't we?”

“But of course.”

Laughing together, the two skeletons moved swift towards the hose to set up their next explosion. Killer was carrying the C4 with his blue magic to avoid jostling anything. A little safety never hurt anyone.

They set up the bomb in a downstairs window. Moving to somewhere they could watch without getting hit by debs. Dream pulled out a gun.

“What are you using that for?” Killer asked, unsure of why a gun was necessary for this.

“Well, to set off C4 you need heat and a shockwave. The easiest way for us to set off our C4 while keeping our distance is by using a gun to set it off. I also wanted an excuse to break the window.”

“Cool.” Killer's eyes were shining. He found a new passion in blowing things up and now that Dream had taught him to make his own bombs he would be having a lot of fun in the future. But for now he focused on the building they were going to destroy, excited by the prospect of an even bigger explosion.

“You ready for me to go?”

“Yes!”

“Okay.”

Dream took a moment to aim, before firing the gun. His aim was spot on and a moment later there was a huge boom as the explosion went off.

“That. Was. Awesome!”

“I know right, explosions are the coolest!”

“I wanna do it again. Let's go get the next one set up.”

“Let's gooooo!”

They found another house and before long there was another huge explosion making itself known. By this point it was starting to get dark, so the explosion inclined duo went near the centre of the city where there were still some moderately big buildings.

They set up the fireworks so that they were in a semicircular formation facing away from them. Killer stepped back and let the more experienced skeleton take care of setting up the final explosion of the day. It wasn't long before Dream was igniting the fireworks and racing back to where the other stood out of the way.

For the next 30 seconds there was nothing but colourful pandemonium and it was glorious.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading.
> 
> I may or may not have gotten the idea for Dream to know how to make his own detonator from a story my day told me about how his science teacher when he was in secondary school taught his class how to make detonators. Nope. I have no idea what you're talking about.
> 
> This chapter involved an annoying amount of research lol. And bay an annoying amount, I mean I had to look up stuff a few times. It probably not that acurate to how real explosives would work, but I did my best to make sure that the force of the explosions and how they were triggered was realistic enough.
> 
> I made a small reference to a short comic in here, I wonder if anyone spots it?
> 
> Have a sublime day. Remember to take time for doing things that make you feel happy ^-^🍊


	24. A Chat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream has to clean up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoy this chapter. I am going to sleep straight after this, I am very tired.
> 
> Thank you for over a hundred notes and almost 2000 hits. And thank you to everyone who's commented, your comments mean the world to me.
> 
> Remember to take care of yourself ^-^🍊

Dream was… jovial.

**********

In the aftermath of the day's final spectacle, Dream and Killer moved to gather up everything they had left behind as they went. It was kind of annoying, but they still managed to have some fun. At one point, Dream even told Killer how to make a bomb out of one those older light bulbs, where when it gets plugged in it blows up.

Overall, they still managed to have a pretty good time.

It took a while, but eventually they finished gathering their bits and bobs. Unfortunately, they ended up pretty far from the castle. Dream grabbed them both a drink and Killer some chocolate, and they started the longish journey back to the castle.

By the time they reached the castle they were both pretty worn out, but in high spirits. The thrill of blowing shut up had yet to fully wear off. Joking and laughing, they made their way inside the castle. One might even say they were having a  _ blast _ .

Waiting for them on the other side of the door was Nightmare.

“‘Sup Brother. How's it going?”

“Don't ‘‘Sup’ me. What were you two doing today?”

“Well, I felt like going outside for a while, so I asked if Killer to come with me so you couldn't get mad at me for going out by myself.”

“If you were just going outside, how come there were explosions going off for most of the day?”

Nightmare looked pretty stern right now, but Dream had gotten ask lot of dopamine out of today and was still riding the high of feeling actually happy for once.

“I wanted to blow shit up.” He shrugged.

“Dream taught me how to make a bomb!”

Killer seemed very excited by and proud of his new knowledge. Enough so that he was blatantly ignoring the look Nightmare was giving dream.

“Yup, and you were pretty good at it too.”

“Why did you think it would be okay to blow up stuff here?”

“Well it's not like you were using the ruined city for anything.”

“Ugh, why do I put up with you.”

“Oh come on, you should at least be proud of Killer. He did really well and learnt quickly.”

“Good job Killer, now go get some dinner, it's getting late.”

“Right you are Boss. See ya Dream.”

“Soo...”

“What is it?”

“I can't believe you went and adopted four kids while I wasn't looking.” He let out a small chuckle.

“I did not!”

“Did too.”

“Did not.”

“Did too.”

“Did not.”

“Did too.”

“Did not.”

“Did too.”

“Didn't.”

“Did.”

“Didn't.”

“Did.”

“Didn't.”

“Did.”

“Didn't.”

“Didn't.”

“Did.”

“Didn't.”

“DID!”

“Okay, fine. You did.”

“Ha- wait… Dream!”

“Gotcha.”

“Ugh, you're so annoying.”

“Thank you. I do try.”

The twins began to walk as they talked.

“So you taught Killer how to make a bomb?”

“Yup.”

“Don't you think that's kind of a dumb idea? I mean we fight against each other, why give the other side more ammunition?”

“A. Because I wanted to blow stuff up and that's always more fun when you're not alone. B. I could have taught him worse. I only showed him how to make a detonator and told him how to turn one of those old light bulbs into a bomb.”

“So what you're saying I need to be careful whenever I turn on a light.”

“Maaaaybe.” Dream sent a cheeky grin over to his brother.

“You're going to be the death of me.”

“Well it's not like I'd let you stay dead for long. It'd be no fun without a sibling to bother.”

“What are you on about Dream? Are those books messing with your head? You know we don't come from a resetting universe, idiot.”

“Actually…”

Nightmare let out a long put-upon groan.

“Seriously?”

“No  _ bones _ about it. If we both die our world resets with a possibility of having a slightly altered set up, like we switched which emotions we have guardianship over.”

“Guh, why though?”

“Well the Multiverse can't function without emotions so I guess it found a way to stop them from disappearing.”

“And how do you even know this anyway? Have we reset before?”

“No, She told me that we'd have vague memories and dreams of past timelines if we ever reset.”

“Well, that's… something.”

“Heh, yeah. Anyway, I'm going to bed, enjoy your dinner.”

“Oh no you don't, you're gonna come with me to dinner and eat some real food. I swear, one of these days you're gonna topple over on me and then what would we do?”

“Hope I died lol.”

“Dream no, what the heck?”

“Dream yes.”

And with that, Dream began to run ahead of Nightmare to the kitchen, before he could say anything.

“Get back here!”

“Nooooo!”

They ended up racing each other to the kitchen. Nightmare won, of course, but only because he knew his way round better than the smaller sibling. The younger sibling was admittedly a little annoyed by this, but in a light hearted way.

“I'll beat you next time.”

Sure you will.” The taller twin replied, patting him on the head condescendingly.

Walking into the kitchen, Dream saw a lasagne dish in the middle of that table. It looked like it had been divided into six portions, but there were only two left.

Sitting down in the free seat next to Killer, the guardian waited until his brother had taken a portion, before carefully taking the last portion for himself. He wasn't sure where to start eating from. He'd never had lasagne before and wasn't sure if you just took bites that included a bit of each layer or from the top down, layer by layer.

After a moment, he chose to start from the top and work his way down. If it wasn't right, well he was already known for generally being a little eccentric.

“You do know that that isn't how you eat lasagne, right?”

Damn, he was hoping that no one would bring it up.

“Well, it's not like I've had lasagne before so…”

“This is a travesty. How could you not have had lasagne before.  _ Lasagne _ !”

“I travel around a lot so I never got the chance. It's not that big of a deal.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading.
> 
> I had stuff to say, but I don't have the energy to type it out. Sorry.
> 
> Have ano energetic day. Remember that you are important ^-^🍊


	25. A Preoccupation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream has dinner,

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you like this chapter. I'm falling asleep rn, but I think it's okay.
> 
> Remember to take care of yourself ^-^🍊

Dream was… expectant.

**********

The other skeletons at the table gave Dream a look.

“That is an absolute travesty, which has now been rectified. We may now continue on with our lives knowing that we no longer live in a world where this bench has not eaten lasagne.”

He let out a short laugh at this. Although looking around the table he saw that he was not alone in his amusement. It was nice being able to feel the cheer from the others and lack of negativity from his brother.

“But wait- If he hasn't had lasagne, what else might he have never tried.”

‘Oh no, is this going to become a thing?’ Dream thought to himself, though not without mirth, as Dust joined in.

“Why he might never have tried many a delicacy.”

“Oh dear, you're right.” Killer's fake fretting was a sight to see, but the guardian couldn't just sit by and see his good name be talked about this way.

“Hey, I've tried most things. I'm just busy a lot. Hmpf.”

“Then have you ever had garlic bread?”

“Well no… but-”

“This is a crime. An absolute crime.”

“A betrayal of the highest order.”

“It's not like I eat all that often, just if someone gives me something. It just so happens that nobody has given me garlic bread .”

“Wait, why don't you eat often? Don't you need to eat everyday? Is that why you had trouble getting into the habit often eating here?” Horror piped up. It seemed as though he  _ really _ didn't like the idea of someone purposely starving themselves. It made sense considering where he came from.

“Being the Guardian of Positivity comes with the bonus of not needing to eat as long as there is enough positivity.”

“Good, but don't pull that BS here.”

With a stern look pointed in Dream’s direction, the damaged skeleton turned back to his meal.

After that everyone began to chat amongst themselves. In lieu of trying to start a new conversation, the Star Sans turned around to Killer to go over what he had explained to him on their way up to the castle.

**********

“So tell me how you make it again?”

“You put a hole in the bulb. Put petrol in the bottom of the bulb. It should be filled with petrol and petrol fumes, so that when it's plugged in it'll explode causing glass and burning petrol to go everywhere. Right?”

“Yup. There you have it. Just don't try to put it together for the first time while I'm not there, okay? We don't want you to get set on gire, now do we?”

“Nope, that would probably kinda suck.”

“Right you are and don't you forget it.”

“What’re you guys talking about over there, you've been in your own little world for a while now?” Dust turned his attention to the two skeletons after he had an argument he was having with Cross over chocolate ended in a stalemate.

“Oh, I was just-”

“We're talking about building bombs!”

“I didn't know you were able to build bombs there, Killer.”

“Well, I'm not that good at it yet.”

“Hey, don't sell yourself short, you were doing pretty well making those detonators earlier. If you work on it I'm sure you’ll be good at it in no time.”

“Dream’s knows how to make bombs?!”

“Yeah, I know how to make some bombs, what of it?”

The tree skeletons who didn't already know looked like the perception of Dream had been moved an inch to the left.

“How in the Underworld do you know how to build bombs?!” Cross blurted out.

“A good friend taught me a very long time ago.”

A look of bittersweet nostalgia crossed the skeleton's face, accompanied by an old tiredness that could nostalgia be cured by sleep. The younger skeletons were struck with the knowledge that this monster was much, much older than any of them. It was bone chilling, the reminder that even though this person was bright and bubbly and sometimes even a little immature, he knew things that none of them could even truly know or comprehend. Not really.

For Nightmare, it was different. It seemed that for the first time, he was forced to see how much his brother had changed from the days when they would play together. This was not the sweet, caring Dream he remembered, but someone who had seen the horrors the Multiverse held with a forced and fake positivity. Not his cheerful little brother, but a monster who had been worn down by time and sights that no one should ever have to see and still managed to help others. He was finally realising the somber reality of what he had been told in the library so long ago, yet painfully recently.

“Okay, you're all acting kind of weird, are you guys okay?”

“Yeah, we're fine, sorry. Now what was that about building bombs?”

Dust was, once again, the first to speak up. He was  _ not _ a fan of awkward silences.

“Oh yeah. Do you guys want me to show you how to make bombs too? Not right now of course, but in the morning.”

“I'd be down for that.”

“Umm… okay.”

“I suppose so.”

“You already know I'm in.”

“Great! Then that's settled.”

Dream then proceeded to pick up his plate. He had finished his meal and didn't feel like potentially having to sit through another awkward silence. He diligently cleaned his used plate and silverware before putting them away.

“Night then. See you guys in the morning.”

A few goodnights were said back to him. It had been quite the long and tiring day and tomorrow was shaping up to be just as draining, but the guardian knew that it would be worth it if it ended up like today. No matter how tired he felt, he still enjoyed spending time with his twin’s gang member (his pseudo-nephew?).

The walk back to his room was a pleasant one and his good mood left the starry eyed skeleton looking forward for tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading.
> 
> Yes, it did take me until this chapter to realise I was spelling lasagna wrong, but you know what, I'm gonna stick by it, so there.
> 
> I think I had something else to say earlier, but I can't remember anymore. That's annoying.
> 
> Have a (positivly) contemplative day. Remember to focus on who you are not who you could be or who you could have been ^-^🍊


	26. A Moment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream waits to fall asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoy this chapter. I'm a little tired, but I don't think it was too detrimental to the story.
> 
> Remember to take care of yourself ^-^🍊

Dream was… thoughtful.

**********

Dream laid in his bed. He felt exhausted from the day he'd had and the amount of interaction involved. He was used to this from times when he'd spend a day with one of his friends, but it still didn't change the fact that he was running low on energy.

However, despite the lack of energy he felt calm and almost happy. He had a lot fun that day and got to do one of his favourite things. And now the contentedness that had made itself and the home, was sticking around for more than just a few short minutes. It was nice.

As the little guardian tried to fall asleep, he let his mind wander. He thought of what he had done that day. He thought of particularly interesting scenes from the books he'd read. He imagined scenarios of what could have gone better in the stories he had gotten sucked into. He contemplated what he could have done if he'd been able to save those he arrived at just a smidgen too late. He thought of what he might read next. He remembered a couple long gone friends, lost to their resets or killed in an unresetting realm. He thought of what he might decide to do in the future.

His mind wandered through twisting roads. It followed strange leaps of logic into side roads before rejoining the one he was following before, bringing a slightly different perspective with it. There were bridges of assumptions and occasional straits of road where a single thought was pondered, until a sudden turn would show up and an entirely new set of thoughts would take precedence.

He spent a while thinking about what he might do when he left. He liked the peaceful atmosphere of this universe, where he didn't feel the oppressive positivity of others as if it were calling out to be kept safe and protected. So he decided that he'd come back every once in a while. After all, he knew what world this was and he could sense the lessened presence of positivity that didn't seem to waver too greatly.

Perhaps… perhaps he could make a space away from the castle just for him. Nothing big and fancy, just a small space for him to be able to feel like himself, not a cheap copy with the brightness turned up too high. He could maybe even call into the library to get books before heading to wherever he made his space.

With nothing better to do and sleep continuing to escape him, the skeleton imagined what his little space would look like. He wanted there to be nature there or at least a tree. He never did Keane his love of trees behind, even with their links to some of his worst memories.

He liked the idea of staying near the outskirts of the town. Places that nature began to reclaim first. Maybe he'd find himself a box and use it to store blankets and similar things in. That sounded like a good idea. He figured he'd put something to keep him warm, something to keep him dry and some snacks or drinks in there. Not more than he could need, just a few little things.

If he got the chance, he might even be able to start his own garden. That could be fun if he worked out a way to spend time maintaining it without it impeding his job.

Dream decided to push these thoughts of plans away for the moment. It would be at least another day before he could start searching for an appropriate space. For the time being he chose to content himself by lying there, eyes closed, imagining himself in the version of what could be his space that he built up for himself in his own mind. An idealised place where he could wait for sleep to claim him.

In the back of the little dreamer’s mind ‘It's Raining Somewhere Else’ played softly on loop.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading.
> 
> I know this chapter comes off a little introspective. That's because it kind of is? I've been watching a lot of video essays in the last few days (instead of doing my hw but shhh) and I think that's got me feeling a little introspective myself and this point in the story felt like an okay place to put those vague feelings to good use. Also I came up with the idea for Dream to start a garden and wanted to get it introduced.
> 
> I actually thought of a few different things I wanted to add to this story at some point so those should show up as well as some concepts I've used earlier on that I think I might be able to explore further or flesh out a little more.
> 
> Anyway, I'm going to go to sleep now since I could barely keep my eyes open this morning.
> 
> Have an introspective day. Remember that sometimes you need to spend time looking at certain things inside yourself in order to get a better idea of who and how you truly are ^-^🍊


	27. A Mishap

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream builds bombs with the gang.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoy the new chapter. Sorry for not uploading yesterday, I wanted to take a little break from uploading everyday because, as I'm sure you could all tell, I write everything in the middle of the night and it was starting to get to me. Have an extra long chapter as an apology.
> 
> Remember to take care of yourself ^-^🍊

Dream was… exuberant.

**********

Dream awoke with a start. He had dreamt of Mother again. It hadn't happened all that often and never before he got kidnapped, but even so the dreams still shook him.

Taking a moment to remind himself that Mother couldn't hurt him anymore, he got ready for the day. Excitement was building within him for the day ahead. He was going to get to blow stuff up while spending time with other people. Hopefully it all went well.

Once he was ready, he made his way down to the kitchen. From the look of the sun outside it was still earlyish in the morning. He was alone apart from Horror in the kitchen. He decided to just make breakfast in silence. If Horror wants to talk with him, he'll say something, if not, then Dream was content with the silence.

He and Horror may have been on better terms now, but things were still a little uneasy between them. Dream understood why and figured it was best to just let the other decide how things went between them.

Putting a little extra care into making sure his toast was properly covered by the butter. He took the little moment of peace to think out his plans for the day and what he would teach them. He didn't want to teach them anything too destructive, but he figured that they could end the whole thing with some C4 or fireworks like he'd done with Killer the other day. The C4 being an option may have been because he wanted to show off a little, but that wasn't important.

As the morning progressed, the gang slowly filtered into the kitchen. The last to arrive was Nightmare, although he doubted it was because he woke last. As he started his fourth cup of water (he considered making himself some tea, but it felt like it would be more effort than he felt like putting into something he'd only be doing to pass the time) he heard the conversation the others were having. They were talking about how cool it would be to blow stuff up mostly, but their excitement for the day made him nervous.

‘What if they get bored?’

‘What if I fail?’

‘What if one of them gets hurt on my watch?’

‘What if I mess it up?’

‘What if I do something wrong and they start hating me?’

‘What if they decide I'm too annoying?’

‘What if they put me back in the cell?’

‘I don't want to go back in the cell.’

‘Oh stars, I'm going to end up back in the cell, amn’t I? No, no, no, no, no. I can't go back, I can't. Oh stars. Please don't put me back in the cell.’

‘Stop.’

‘You're not going to end up back in the cell. You're not going to teach them anything too dangerous. You know well enough not to explode anything without being cautious about it. Going by how yesterday with Killer went, they won't find you annoying. You Will Not End Up Back There. Calm your ass down.”

Taking a breath of air and taking a sip of water he focused on one of the last stories he'd read, choosing to ignore his thoughts of heat could go wrong. It was easy enough to do, he'd had centuries to practice after all.

Nightmare had gotten himself a bowl of cereal and was half way through when Dream pulled himself out of his mind and moved over to the sink to get his washing up done before they left. It only took him a few minutes to get his plate and glass washed, dried and put away, but his brother had already finished up.

“Okay! Once you're all ready we can make a move.”

The response was quick as the four underlings ran to get the last few things they needed before heading out. Now alone in the kitchen with his brother, Dream was unsure of what to do as an awkward atmosphere began to settle in.

“So…”

“Yeah?”

“I was wondering, where did you learn how to make bombs? I know you didn't learn back in Dreamtale, so then where?”

“I don't really want to talk about it. Sorry.”

“Okay, well I'll leave it be for now.”

Dream did not like the implication that he'd try hounding him for an answer later on, but was glad for the space he was being given for the moment.

“Oh, I almost forgot! Could you get some things for me? I'm gonna need them to make the explosives. Please?”

“Fine, what are you going to need?”

**********

“Are you sure that's all?”

“Yup, that should be everything!”

“Thank Toby. That was a whole lot of weird stuff you wanted.”

“Life is strange that way. Wait, you're coming too, right?”

“Do I have to?”

“Oh come on brother, it'll be fun.”

“I doubt it.”

“At least try it, you can always leave after a bit if you're not having fun.”

“Ugh fine.”

“Yay!”

From outside the door, they hear rush footsteps approaching. ‘Looks like everyone is here.’ Dream thought to himself. Walking to the living room he spotted the others chatting.

“Right so, is everyone ready?”

With affirmative responses all around, they made their way out to the decrepit city below. The guardians around the back of the group. He had no idea how to actually get out of the maze-like castle, so he let the gang lead the way while he carried the supplies.

Once outside, Dream took the lead and brought the others to the clearing he and Killer had found the day before. Setting out all the supplies, he started with going over some basic safety rules. Nothing too long, just some rules to make sure there were no injuries under his watch.

Handing out the hearing protection he had asked Nightmare to get for the day, he moved on onto explaining what everything he had gotten was. They were starting to get a little restless so he skimmed over this part since it was the least important.

Next he sat them down in a circle and showed them how to make the two different types of explosives he had planned for the day. This seemed to get them back interested in what he was doing. Going over each step of making a detonator and the light bulb bomb was a little tedious for someone who had done it so many times, but he had some help half of the time. Thankfully the gang was good at following along.

Once he felt comfortable in letting them try to make either the light bulb or detonator by themselves, he got to work on making as many detonators as he could. Every once in a while, he got asked a question which he did his best to answer cheerfully, not wanting to put the others off asking questions if they were unsure of something. They were handling explosives after all.

“Oh shoot!!” came cry as Dream was putting the finishing touches on his umpteenth detonator. Looking up, he saw that Criss had fumbled his Light bulb and it had shattered on his lap. His legs were fine, his thick trousers protecting them from the broken glass, however his hands were not as lucky. The monochrome skeleton had reached out to try and catch it before it hit the ground. They missed, but ended up close enough to get a few shards of glass stuck stuck in them.

“Holy motherhugging dandyfluff that hurts.”

Moving quickly Dream made his way over to the mildly injured skeleton.

“Hold still, you don't want to make it worse. Brother could you please get something to put the broken bulb into? Also some tweezers and antiseptic cream if you could, maybe a plaster while you're at it.”

He held onto Crosses hands, inspecting them for anything particularly bad that might need more attention, sighing when he found nothing of note. Behind him, he heard Nightmare grabbing what he'd asked for.

“Here.” the darker twin replied. The positive guardian could tell that he was worried, even as the other tried to hide it.

“Thank you.”

Getting to work fast, he removed all the glass on the other's lap before it could do any damage and put it all in the small bin bag his brother had gotten for him. Next he moved onto the other's hand, carefully removing the little shards of glass that had wedged themselves into the poor hands’ bones. This was made more difficult by Cross’ shaking. He didn't appear to be in too much pain, but the fact it was his hands meant he had a bit harder time keeping still.

“Cross, you're doing great. There's just a few more shards left and then you'll be good as new.”

“Okay, thank you.”

“It's no problem. I should have been paying more attention para. If I had noticed you were having trouble, I could have gone over and helped before this whole thing happened.”

“No… I probably should have asked for help when I started having problems.”

“Whelp, what's done is done and cannot be undone. No use blaming yourself.”

“O-” Cross was cut off when Dream removed a particularly tricky piece of glass.

Around them the others had gone back to building their bombs a while ago, once they knew their friend was okay. Their chatter filled the silence between the two skeletons.

After another minute Dream had finished with Cross’ hands. There were a few plasters here and there along with one or two smudges of antiseptic cream that hadn't gotten properly rubbed in, but other than that you couldn't even tell they had been hurt at all.

“There, all done. You want to try building something else now?”

“Uh, sure. I think I'll try building a detonator this time if that's okay?”

“‘Course it is, I'll pass you over the stuff for it now.”

With the minor crisis averted, he moved back over to his spot and did just that.

**********

Half an hour later, the seven skeletons were walking around to find a small structure to test out their homemade explosives on. The incident earlier hadn't dampened any of their excitement as they all eagerly helped in the search.

Dream noticed Nightmare hanging around the back of the group, but figured that it was probably because he wasn't all that enthused. Or maybe it was because he wanted to keep an eye on the gang to make sure none of them got hurt. Who knew? Certainly not Dream.

It took another five minutes before Horror found a small shed and another five minutes before it was all setup. Hearing protection on, Dream carefully got ready to blow it up.

“Ready? 3… 2… 1…”

The explosion let out a loud boom as it went off. A safe distance away, the gang was celebrating their success.

**********

“And that's the last of what we've made ourselves. You guys wanna do the C4 next?” Dream was having a blast with all the explosions. He was especially looking forward to having a chance to show off, just a little bit.

With enthusiastic nods from the gang, he looked around for a house to blow up. Spotting a house near an apartment building, he explained to the others what he would be doing and why he would be doing it. Inside the house, he found a place where he could put the C4 in view of one of the second floor apartments. He sent the others off ahead to the apartment as he finished up.

Out loud, he said it was because they would get bored watching him get everything set up. In truth, it was because he was feeling lonely and it was getting to him. The others were talking to each other and while the lighter guardian would add something every so often, it was clear he was an outsider. If anything, his sparse interactions made him feel worse.

It was a feeling he wasn't used to, loneliness. He had gotten used to quashing these kinds of feelings and now that he was starting to let himself feel them he wasn't able to do it as well as before. It was different than in the library where he was in control of what he felt. Now he just wanted to go back to the castle.

But he refused. He wouldn't let this out of place feeling spoil his fun. He used his brief respite to push all those negative feelings away and focus on his excitement at getting to show off.

Looking over the bomb one last time, he turned and ran over to the apartment. Getting Nightmare to pass him the gun, gun he settled into position.

“This is gonna be good.” Killer said excitedly.

“You seem more excited. Is this gonna be better than before?” Dust asked. He seemed more invested than usual.

“Absolutely.”

Carefully, Dream lined up his shot.

“3… 2… 1… fire in the hole.”

With that, he fired the gun at the C4. A moment later, a bigger explosion than any of the earlier erupted from the house.

**********

“Was that the last one?”

“‘Fraid so, Killer.”

“Aww.”

“Don't worry, we still have the fireworks to go.”

“Oh frick yeah!”

The sun was setting and it was getting dark, the perfect lighting for an explosive little fireworks show. The group made off to find a little big open space where they could safely set off the fireworks. They couldn't use the city centre since that's where Dream did it yesterday with Killer. It took a little searching, but eventually they found somewhere.

It wasn't long before Dream had the fireworks all set up. He took a second to look back and check that the others were safely away.

“You guys ready?” he called back to them as a final check before lighting up the fireworks.

“We're all ready.” Nightmare called back. He was the only one who didn't need hearing protection because of his goop.

“‘Kay.”

The golden eyed skeleton made quick work of lighting up the fireworks, before running back to safety.

Everything seemed fine, until at the last minute a strong wind over balanced one of the fireworks. When it set off, instead of going towards the buildings opposite the onlookers, it fell in such a way that it pointed just at the top of the building above them. Once the firework blew up the top of the building it sent a chunk of the stone roof hurtling down towards the group of skeletons.

They were all out of the way of where it would land except for one. Dream didn't see who it was as he ran towards them and pushed them out of the way just in time, jumping in order to make it.

As his head hit the ground hard he fell unconscious.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading.
> 
> I actually didn't take much of a break yesterday, I got distracted a few times and ended up writing the first 600 odd words of this lol. Well at least I fell asleep a little earlier than usual XD.
> 
> I decided on writing this ending and then got sad because I didn't want to hurt my baby. Why do I do this? Oh yeah, it's because my brain is a little shit and today it really said angst machine go brr. This was supposed to be a more or less fluffy chapter.
> 
> Have a safe day. Remember to take breaks when you need to ^-^🍊


	28. A Consequence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nightmare's gang deals with the aftermath.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you like the new chapter. Funnily enough, the chapter actually ended up a little longer than I expected.
> 
> Remember to take care of yourself ^-^🍊

Killer felt… worried.

**********

Nightmare looked down at his unconscious sibling. It had been a day or two since the accident, he wasn't sure. Everything after part of the building fell on Dream was a blur. The only thing the negative guardian could remember clearly was the shock.

After all, it's not everyday you see your brother half crushed.

The panic was near overwhelming. He felt the weight of the chunk of debris as he picked it up with some tentacles. Beneath it laid his brother, skull cracked and bleeding slightly, his leg covered in fractures along with half his hip, rib cage and his arm. Blood was pouring out of his brother before his eyes. If he had been just a little further to the left it would have crushed his heart.

A moment and then he remembered the freezer burn feeling of using his healing magic. The disconcerting feeling of blood on his tentacles. The burn in his legs as he ran as fast as he could to the castle. The pounding in his ears. The single thought that managed to rise above the maelstrom in his mind; ‘Please don't die on me, Brother please.’

Dear Toby, he hoped that would never happen again. It took hours upon hours of pumping healing magic into the injured skeleton to just get him mostly stable. Nightmare spent all that time and more trying to save his brother. One of the others would also be there helping him, swapping out every so often.

Nightmare refused to stop healing dream until Horror convinced him that he needed to eat and restore his energy reserves. If he didn't he might fall down and then they might not be able to save either of them. This caught the guardians attention and he agreed to stop for short breaks to eat, so long as someone took his place.

He just felt so guilty. If he had been a little faster he might have been able to save Dream. If he had been paying more attention to his  family gang he could have prevented everything. It was all his fault that his brother was on the brink of death  again .

He hoped that his brother would pull through.

**********

Cross felt his guilt consuming him as he looked into the room holding the twins. It was his fault, if he hadn't been such an idiot and moved instead of freezing up none of this would have happened. If it weren't for him they could have been laughing about what a fun time they had. Instead, he was watching Nightmare sitting beside his brother's bed for the second day in a row.

Knocking on the door, he walked inside with a plate of food. No words were exchanged as Cross sat down opposite the negative guardian and began healing Dream. He had volunteered as much as possible when Dream still needed two healers at once just to stop him from dusting. It was terrifying. They were either anxiously waiting to find out if anything had changed or putting as much magic as possible into healing the friendly skeleton.

Mentally he compared what was happening with Dream to when he got hurt. How the guardian swiftly moved in and fixed him up as best he could. And how did he pay back the other's kindness, by lying there uselessly after almost getting him killed. He got away with an aching tibia while the other was on his dust bed.

‘Stop being selfish. This isn't about you. Focus on healing Dream, you can wallow in self pity later.’

Cross pushed more magic into healing Dream. He deserved it more anyway. The guardian had been nothing but nice to him, even when he was obvious about the fact he wanted to be as far away as possible from him.

Nightmare was quick about finishing his food and soon took the monochromatic skeleton’s place. He felt the constant pulse of the guardian's aura quicken slightly before calming down. Taking the tray, he sent a quick nod over to the taller and made his way out.

A shuffling noise from the room next to Dream’s could be heard. Poking his head in he saw Killer just sitting there.

“How's it going?”

“Grand. Just thinking.”

“It going well?”

“Sure, hope this is enough for Dream. He might have gained some strength, but he's still weak. Managed to stay positive for a whole hour so far.”

“Good on ya. Well, I'll leave you to it, I need to get this all cleaned up.” he said, gesturing to the tray he was holding.

“Well don't let me keep you, see you later.”

“See ya.”

Cross left a little happier than before. He wished he was able to be positive and help Dream like Killer was, but he just wasn't strong enough. The thought brought him down again, he wasn't even strong enough to help fix the damage he had caused.

It was a long walk back to the kitchen.

**********

Horror could barely stand himself. How could he have been such a- such an  _ assole  _ to the person who put their own life on the line for his friend. What kind of a person did that make him?

Maybe if he had gotten out of his own stupid head for five minutes, he would have seen that Dream wasn't as bad as he was a making him out to be. Maybe if he hadn't judged him so quickly he would have noticed that Dream was being nice to his friends even though they had kidnapped him. Sure he acted a little weird, but that shouldn't have been enough to be so mean to him, even after they had sorted out their differences he hadn't been all that nice to him.

He was such an idiot, idiot, Idiot, IDIOT! No, he couldn't let himself think this way. It didn't help anyone. All he could do now was make sure that everyone had enough magic to help Dream and that there would be plenty of high magic and high HP foods for  if when the golden skeleton woke up. Stress cooking might not be the best way to cope, but it was helpful and that's all that matters.

He also washed the clothes that were piled on the floor of Dream’s room. It was the least he could do for the monster who saved his friend.  If he had moved to use his magic faster he could have saved Cross before anyone had gotten hurt.

If he was helpful, maybe it'd make up for how badly he acted before.

**********

Dust was concerned for his family. Nightmare was working himself into the ground trying to keep Dream from Falling. Killer Killer was forcing happiness, which he knew would end with him crashing from an overload of forced emotions that he wasn't used to. Cross looked to be wracked with guilt from being saved, probably blaming himself for the whole thing. Horror was stress cookin. And poor Dream was still out cold, half covered in an intricate spider web of fragile cracks, where one wrong move could cause everything to collapse.

And then there was Dust.

Dust was ever grateful to dream for saving Cross. If he hadn't been pushed out of the way he would have died, no two ways about it. But the stress and anxiety the whole situation was causing his family was pervasive.

He had always been the more reliable of the gang. He was the second to join and was one of the more stable members despite his LV. Nightmare had picked him up after he had worked through a lot of his issues on his own. Thanks to his stability, he became a cornerstone of the gang. He was always there when any of the others had an issue. It was almost like he was the big brother of them, in fact they had tried working out their ages once and found out that he was probably the oldest of them.

In the time following the Accident, any time he wasn't spent taking his turn healing Dream or eating was spent comforting the others. It was hard work, but worth it when he saw their tears stop flowing and a small smile sneak it's way once to their faces.

He hoped it all would be over soon, he hated seeing his family in so much pain.

**********

Killer was doing his best to stay positive for his new friend(?). He knew Dream fed off of others' positivity and since he wasn't able to eat, he took it upon himself to make a supply of positivity. All the healing magic would be useless if he ran out of magic to keep going.

At first he thought about the day before the Accident, but it kept bringing him back to what happened the day after. Instead, he decided to think of all the fun times he'd had with his family. All the times they had a movie night together and had fallen asleep on the floor of the living room. The times Horror had made breakfast for them. The one time they played ‘Hide and Seek’ in the castle and even though the place was huge, he found Dust almost immediately, hidden behind a curtain.

It was a nice distraction from the terrifying present.

Killer spent a few hours in the corner of that room just reminiscing. It was surprisingly pleasant, just sitting there, thinking about the good times. Every now and then he went to get food, but that was the only interruption he had. At first he had been in and out of the neighbouring bedroom, helping heal Dream, but now that Dream was stable he focused his efforts on staying positive and hoping that things ended up okay in the end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading.
> 
> I hope you liked this and thank you to the people who guessed who Dream saved last chapter. It was kinda cool seeing who you thought Dream saved.
> 
> I'm not sure what else to say lol.
> 
> Have a relaxing day. Remember that you are incredible ^-^🍊


	29. A Pain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nightmare takes care of Dream

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you like this chapter. I drank two cans of Monster today and I only mildly regret it lol.
> 
> TW: Referenced Self Harm
> 
> Remember to take care of yourself ^-^🍊

Nightmare was… not okay. 

**********

It had taken Nightmare another day before Dream was fully stabilised. It was hard, grueling work healing his twin for so long, but it was worth it if it meant that he wouldn't lose the person he was only just getting to know again.

After being healed for so long, he couldn't risk using more foreign magic without increasing the risk of Dream’s magic attacking it and injuring the fragile skeleton further. With a sigh, Nightmare walked to the desk where some medical supplies laid. He had asked for them to be brought in a few hours ago. The guardian thought fondly of his boys and hoped that his, admittedly not great, behaviour hadn't worried them too much.

Carefully, he took some antiseptic cream out and began applying it to the various injuries his brother had suffered. He wished that the wounds wouldn't scar, but knew that it was futile. Even with the amount of healing magic in Dream, there was no way those complex fractures wouldn't leave scars, never mind the crack in his skull.

‘Stars, I'm a terrible brother, aren't I? No! Stop that. Focus on healing your brother for now, you can feel bad later.’

It wasn't long before Nightmare had finished work on the damaged skull and moved onto the much more delicate task of treating the near shattered ribs. Carefully cutting away half the torn jumper (to preserve some dignity) Dream had been wearing up until this point, he was confronted by how close his little brother had been to having his soul crushed. He knew it had been a close call, but physically seeing the cracks that ended what had to have been less than a centimetre away from his soul felt entirely too real.

They had been incredibly lucky that none of the ribs had snapped, but the intricate spider web of cracks were almost as bad. Every so often a chunk of bone would be missing, causing the dark skeleton to take extra care. One wrong move here could destabilise Dream once more and Nightmare didn't know if they'd be able to save him a second time.

The hardest part was trying to clean the blood out of the nooks and crannies. There would be a higher risk of infection if it were simply left there. At least the healing had stopped the bleeding.

It took a while, but eventually he finished dressing the ribs. Every once in a while the negative guardian found an unusually deep or straight fracture, but didn't think too much of it, more focused on trying not to cause more damage than slightly unusual cracks.

Next he began work on the positive guardian’s right arm. The cracks started halfway down the humerus. The damage started out mild, but got progressively worse. You were still able to clearly see the jagged line where the ulna had to be reset. It had been nerve wracking getting the bone back in place without making things worse. He had been so scared that the bone would just crumble in his hand.

The bone still looked like it would crumble. Even though he knew it was unlikely now that the worst of the damage was healed, Nightmare still refused to take any chances. He took a great deal of care as he methodically rubbed the cream into the bones of his brother's arm.

Everything was going smoothly until he reached the ulna. There were a number of strangely straight marks. He had seen some before, but they had chunks and cracks surrounding them leading the weary guardian to believe that it was just his imagination. But here the marks looked like almost recognisable words.

The first letter looked like it might once have been a ‘D’ or it might just be a chunk of lost bone. Right next next to it might have been an ‘E’ if you squinted. Then an ‘A’. And a ‘T’. And a ‘H’.

‘‘DEATH’? No this can't be right. I'm probably reading too far into this.  But what if you're not? Dream would never do something so drastic to himself.  But what if he would? Well, if this arm says ‘DEATH’ then maybe the other arm would…  Check it. No no, that's an invasion of privacy, I can't do that to him.  But what if he's hurt. What if he's hurting himself? He'd never do that! He'd try talking to someone first before ever considering I can't fit!  But what if you're wrong? I-fine. I'll look, but only to make sure.’

Walking around to the other side of the bed, Nightmare gently lifted his twins arm up, shaking slightly. Quickly he pulled down the sleeve, like ripping the plaster off. What he found there caused him to drop the arm as if it had burned him. Dream had…? No, he had to be wrong. He  _ had _ to be! There's no way he-!

Slowly he reached for the arm again, he had tears in his eyes threatening to spill down his face as he shook even worse than before. Bending down to look properly he got a clear view of what he had been dreading. The word ‘LIFE’ was carved into his little brother's arm. Below that were lines upon lines neatly in a row. They had closed up, but it was evident for the other arm that they were newer than they appeared. It seemed as though they had closed up when the younger skeleton’s system was being flooded with healing magic.

Beyond the obvious marks, yet to start fading, were older looking scars. Two small yet clear lines along with four faded ones.

Nightmare pulled down the sleeve and backed away. He didn't know what to do. He didn't know how to help. He leant heavily against the solid wood of the wardrobe. Tears were pouring out of his eye. His brother, his little brother had hurt himself. He hadn't just hurt himself, he had  _ carved words _ into his bone. He had purposefully marked his own arm and it wasn't even the first time.

‘Oh stars, what do I do? What do I do? Is there anything I can do? I need time. I-I need to think about this. But I can't just leave Dream there, he could get an infection and it'd be my fault. Stars, it's all my fault. Stop! That's no use to anyone! If I don't treat Dream’s injuries he could end up in big trouble. Focus on getting that done first, then you can worry about the self harm. You're no use to anyone if all you do is sit there doing nothing.’

Pushing himself off the ground, Nightmare pushed back the tears. He wouldn't allow his brother continue to hurt if he had any say in the matter. Doing his best to collect himself temporarily, he walked back to the bedside and picked up the medical supplies. He focused all his attention into tending to his twin’s wounds. He didn't have much time before he'd unravel again, but it would be enough.

That evening he wept at the pain his brother felt. The pain he hadn't even noticed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading.
> 
> My emotions were a bit of a roller coaster today so hopefully that didn't impact the story too badly.
> 
> I'd just like to make it clear that Dream is aro so he won't be shipped with anyone. Romance isn't going to play a major part in this fic. Any romance or ships that might show up will be minor. Jeese, I hope that didn't sound agressive, I just wanted to restate it since Dream being aro hasn't shown up much so far.
> 
> My school's giving us a learning pause tomorrow, so hopefully I'll get a chance to work on the side fic once I catch up on missed hw. 
> 
> Oof this chapter was supposed to cover a good bit more XD
> 
> Have an inconvinience-free day. Remember that there will always be someone who cares about you ^-^🍊


	30. A Hope

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blue searches.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you like this chapter. Sorry this chapter is shorter than usual. I was really tired today, but I still wanted to get this out.
> 
> Remember to take care of yourself ^-^🍊

Blue was… resolved.

**********

Blue had a good feeling. They had to be getting close. Recently they had gotten Reaper on board and it had been a huge help. The cloaked skeleton had agreed to check the AUs he visited for any sign of Dream or the gang. With the new pair of eyes they were marking universes off the list much faster than before.

Blue was on his way to an Alltale’s from Geno’s. With Reaper being busy with his job, Geno, his husband who lived with him, was their main point of contact. Once a day he would give them a list of places that had been checked. This also decreased the amount of time spent in unsettling AU since they tended to have more death.

It's not that Blue disliked the people there, but he really hated seeing monsters in needless pain. He wished that those creators Ink talked about didn't seem to have such an affinity for them.

All the Underfell timelines had finally been crossed off the list along with all the Horrortale, Swapfell and Fellswap timelines. With the more violent AUs mostly covered by their new ally, they focused on more peaceful AUs, a welcome break from running for your life if he got found out in the wrong world.

After updating the virtual list and sending off a quick text for the hourly check in and update, he stepped into Alltale’s from the Anti-Void. As a semi-outcode he was able to travel the Multiverse, but since he wasn't a full on outcode he had to go through the Anti-Void first. It was not fun.

Even with things going well, Blue couldn't help but worry. Every minute Dream spent captured was another minute he could be into pain. He was so scared that they would do something irreparable and even if his friend was saved he would still be suffering.

Moving away from the restaurant away from the center of this universe's story, the lively skeleton moved with renewed purpose. He would not let his friend be hurt. He would do everything in his power to find him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading.
> 
> I was going to put something here, but I'm really tired so I'll do it tmrw.
> 
> Have a not-so-tired day. Remember to take breaks when you need them ^-^ 🍊


	31. A Headache

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nightmare has work to get done.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoy the new chapter.
> 
> Edit: I changed the chapter slightly because the phrasing of one part was bothering me. Sorry about that.
> 
> Remember to take care of yourself ^-^🍊

Nightmare was… unfocused.

**********

Nightmare hated paperwork. He had left one of the gang to keep an eye on Dream after he left. It'd be nice if he could remember who, but he was still unfocused from what he had learned.

Stars, he really needed to figure out how to deal with that. He couldn't just address it outright, all that would likely do would be to shut him out. Not for the first time Nightmare wished that he was better at handling emotional situations. He had literally no tact when trying to talk about these things. Sometimes it would be fine, it even helped some of his boys, but sometimes it ended in disaster.

But first, the mountain of paperwork that had accrued while he was healing Dream. As nice as it was to have a stable income to fall back on, it was a pain in the behind dealing with all the bureaucracy. Sure he  _ could _ have delegated the work he didn't like, but he didn't trust the pests he had threatened and bribed with anything important.

Picking up a pen, he got to work on finishing everything so he could make sure his brother was okay. He was still unsure as to what the full extent of the damage might be. It's stupid, but he couldn't help but think that there's a chance he missed something when checking over him.

And there he was, lost in thought  _ again _ . Maybe he should take a minute and then go back to work. Nightmare got up and opened the window. ‘I wish Error were here. He'd know what to do. Well, no he wouldn't, but he'd know what not to do. It's been a while since he's come over. Maybe Ink’s started being more active again? Whatever, there's no use speculating, we'll see him when we see him, whenever that may be.’

Nightmare sighed. There was so much going on. There were Dream’s injuries, Dream’s… issue, the paperwork, the boys worrying themselves, Error’s unusually long absence. The list just keeps going. ‘No, focus on one thing at a time. Get the paperwork done, then worry about everything else.’ Unfortunately it was easier said than done.

Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath of fresh air, the guardian went back to the paperwork. In an attempt to keep his head clear he left the window open on the off chance the cool air would help at all.

The work seemed a lot harder than usual. It took a grueling half hour just to get through the first few pages. With the first topic finished, he stood up to put them in the completed pile on the bookshelf. However, the moment he was no longer between the desk and the window, the wind was able to blow the piles of paperwork away, causing the important documents to be thrown everywhere.

Nightmare raced to put the completed work out of the way, before running to the window and slamming it shut before he lost anything. He groaned when he noticed a headache developing. ‘Ugh, this is just my luck.’

From behind the door, he heard a knock.

“Is everything okay in there Boss? You sound upset.”

“Everything's fine Killer, just sick of all this paperwork.”

“Well, if ya say so.”

Footsteps could be heard echoing slightly from behind the door as the guardian was left alone again. Looking around, he started picking up the scattered papers. Without anything else to think about, his mind began to wander back to his hurt twin.

Accepting that he was unlikely to get much done, at least not until he tried to figure out how to talk with Dream. It felt strange being so worried about someone who he spent so long trying to convince himself that he didn't care about. That the other person didn't really ever care about him either.

And what if Dream reboots after this. He'd have to wait even longer to talk with him all the while needing to take care of him. The knowledge of what he'd learnt gnawing away at him. He wasn't sure how much longer he could take waiting, it had only been a few hours and it was already getting difficult.

Stars above, he really needed to get himself together. As horrible as this whole situation was, there had to be some way for him to deal with this. There had to be.

Putting the slightly rumpled documents back on his desk, he decided that he'd be better off leaving everything until the morning. He didn't technically need to sleep, but at this point a break from reality would probably help give him a clearer outlook on the whole situation.

Thank Toby the remaining Stars hadn't been as active as usual in messing up the balance. There was no way the gang would be able to deal with that on top of everything happening right now.

‘Wait a second. Dream mentioned the balance. If he knew about the balance then why would he constantly be trying to tip it. Frick. Every time I think I'm starting to understand, something new shows up to throw me for a loop. Why can't anything be easy? I swear, I'm going to need to draw up an entire timeline and start taking notes just to understand everything.’

Nightmare shuddered at the thought of all the potential issues on the horizon. Leaving the room, he stopped a second to gather his thoughts together.

The last thing he wanted was for his boys to worry about him, they had enough to worry about by themselves without his issues dragging them down. His focus was shot and he almost felt a little dazed, which was probably a combination of the drained magic and shock from earlier. He… he didn't know what to think about Dream’s problem, once the initial panic and fear had lessened he just felt so lost. He was scared and wanted to help, but felt like he was drowning or as if he was way out of his depth.

The walk to his room was thankfully devoid of people. He didn't think he'd be able to act normally right now.

A few minutes later and he was ready to sleep and lying in bed, Nightmare closed his eyes and did his best not to think about everything that had happened in the last few days. In his head he began to think up a topsy turvy fluffy bunny story to focus his mind on.

It took a while, but eventually the guardian slipped into a dreamless sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading.
> 
> I hope I did a good job with Nightmare in this. I was trying to show how lost he was feeling and how he isn't quite able to process what he's leant. I hope I managed to get that across.
> 
> I was going to have a mini rant about how much I fucking hate adventurers here. Not like fantasy adventurers but the irl ones. But tbh I don't have the energy to. Just know that they were absolute dicks who came over to Ireland and went around claiming land as their own. I'd go into more detail, but I want to go to sleep now so I can write tomorrow's chapter, which I'm actually looking forward to?
> 
> Dream was supposed to be in this chapter more, but I guess that's just how the cookie crumbles.
> 
> Have a peaceful day. Remember that improvements, even if they're small, are still improvements and that's what matters ^-^🍊


	32. A Surprise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Waking up can often be disorienting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you like this chapter. Sorry for not posting last night. I started this, but half way through was too tired to continue. I'm posting this, taking a break and then I'm going to get the next chapter out which should be in the next few hours.
> 
> Remember to take care of yourselves.

Dream was... annoyed.

**********

Nightmare groaned as he got up from his place at the kitchen table. He had a little more energy after getting some sleep that night, so that was nice. Unfortunately for him though he still had to have breakfast. Horror really didn't like it when people skipped meals and worried over them, so even though he didn't feel like eating anything he forced down some cereal. He only did this so Horror wouldn't get distracted during a battle of course... no other reason.

“I'm going to go check in on Dream before finishing up the last of the paperwork if you want to come too.” And with that he turned to leave the room.

Behind him he heard some hasty footsteps. “Wait, I want to join.”

Huh, Cross was the one to join him. He figured it made sense, the smaller skeleton had been the one saved by Dream and it's been a while since he had visited. The goopy skeleton's long stride left the monochrome skeleton trailing behind.

**********

Dream sat up in bed. Where was he? He fell asleep stargazing with his brother last night, he was sure he did! So why was he in this weird stoney room? And why did his bones hurt so much?

From beyond the door he sensed two people’s auras. One of them felt like his brother but wrong. He hoped that his brother was okay.

The auras were approaching the door now. The golden skeleton sat up carefully. It would be rude not to greet new people after all. It might not have been the best situation, but Dream was positive everything would be okay in the end.

The door opened. The chatter that was there at first, stopped abruptly when they saw him. Before him stood two skeleton monsters, one was all black and white with a big ‘X’ across his chest, the other looked all goopy with tentacles like all octopus. He didn't recognise either of them. ‘Maybe they were strangers passing through the village and didn't know that sleeping under the tree wasn't wasn't a big deal for him.

Deciding them maybe it was best if he spoke first since both of the skeletons looked shocked. “Hi! My name is Dream, what’re your names?”

“Oh no, this is going to be an absolute pain in the behind.”

“What do you mean by that mister?”

“Boss, what's going on with Dream?”

“Just give me a moment and I'll explaine verything before you do something dumb.”

“Okay.”

Slowly, Nightmare approached his twin. “Hey there, do you feel okay? You took quite the tumble and got hurt earlier.”

“I'm okay thank you.”

“Good because my friend and I just need to talk about something outside. Oh, are you okay with being left alone for a minute?”

“Yeah, I'll be fine.”

“Thank you, this should only take a minute or two.”

“It's okay.”

Dream wondered what they needed to talk about. He hoped that they wouldn't be gone long.

**********

Behind the door, Nightmare began explaining what was going on to Cross. They all needed to know what was going on so they didn't make the bad situation worse.

“Okay, so you said you want to know what I think is going on with Dream right now?”

“Yeah, Dream was acting so weird in there, it was like he was a different person!”

“That's because he's rebooting.”

“What the heck do you mean he's rebooting?”

“You've never heard of rebooting?”

“No?”

“Oh stars, okay. So basically rebooting it's when a monster sustains damage to their soul or significant physical damage. When this happens the soul might lock their mind away to focus more magic on healing. Once the soul or body has healed enough the soul will let the mind back out, but does it in little increments so that it doesn't overwhelm them. It usually takes about a week before they're back to normal and they don't remember what happened. That's basically what it is.”

“That's so weird.”

Yeah, I guess it is a bit.”

“So that's what's going on with Dream right now?”

“Seems to be so. Now let's go back in.”

**********

After the strange men let the room, it wasn't long until Dream got bored. At first he tried to get up from the best, but it hurt too much so he stopped. Looking around for something close to the bed to play with, he spotted the bedside table.

‘Maybe there's something cool hidden in there.’

Carefully, he manoeuvred himself closer to the edge and reached over to open the first drawer. Only to find that it was empty. A little disappointed, he tried the next drawer down. It was empty again, but there was a shape in the dust that looked as if there used to be a pen and paper there.

‘Aww, those would have been some much fun to play with.’

Stretching as far as he could, he managed to yank open the final drawer. He heard things shifting around in there as he opened it.

‘Finally! Bet it's something cool!’

In the drawer he found a pair of scissors, a knife and sound and some tissues. Not his first choice, but he could still have fun with it. He began using the scissors and knife to cut shapes into the tissues. It was an absolute blast.

A little while later he heard the door open. He didn't notice though, because he was too focused on getting the next shape cut out.

“Hey there Dream.”

“Oh, hi! I got bored and found these in the drawers! They're a lotta fun to play with! You wanna try?”

“Okay, but I need you to answer some questions for me while we do it, okay?”

“Oki doki. Can I ask questions too?”

“Sure.”

Getting out a tissue for the goopy man, the guardian went back to cutting out the flower shape from his tissue. That was until he noticed the black and white man continued to stand awkwardly by the door.

“It's okay mister, you can come over too.”

Once everyone was at the bed, the bigger stranger asked the first question.

“Can you tell me what the last thing you remember is?”

“Um, okay. I was stargazing with Wispy. There was a festival earlier that day, but he didn't want to go so we played around the tree all day. Now it's my turn to ask! What’re your names?”

“Oh, did we forget to say? His name is Cross and my name is Night.”

“I can say my own name thank you.”

“Ooh, your name sounds like Wispy’s name. His real name is Nightmare, but people were being meanies about it. Now I call him Wispy after those things that light up your room at night. It's a cool name right?!”

“Aren't those called-”

One of the Night’s tentacles moved around to cover Cross’ mouth. Before he could question it Night started speaking again.

“Sorry about him, he was going to say something silly. It's a very cool name indeed.”

“Yay!”

“Next question, how old are you?”

“I'm six!”

Dream proudly held up six fingers, showing off how old he was.

“Oh? Are you?”

“Yep. I'm getting very big, I'm even taller than Wispy now! My turn! Why am I here and why do I look different?”

“Uh… It's…”

“It's because something happened with older you and you switched places with him. It's only for a short while though.”

“Cool!”

Cross had been quiet so far, until Dream heard him say something under his breath.

“Oh my stars he's so heccing adorable.”

“I'm not adorable! I'm very big and grown up!”

“Sure you are.”

The guardian “hmpf”ed before turning back around to the other man.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading.
> 
> I'd just like to restate that if you see something wrong in my fic to please tell me. This is my first time doing this so any constructive criticism is very welcome.
> 
> I swear I had more stuff to put here, but I can't remember any of it. I think I got too distracted trying to make a mental timeline for this fic and forgot lol.
> 
> Have a stress free day. Remember to eat ^-^🍊


	33. A Playtime

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Young Dream has fun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoy the new chapter. Here it is the second chapter of the night (well I posted the last one before midnight and I'm posting this early in the morning but shh). It might have been out sooner, but I got distracted by some comic dubs and ended up spending an hour more than I meant to between writing chapters.
> 
> Remember to take care of yourself ^-^🍊

Dream was… entertained.

**********

Dream was having a great time. They played for a while longer and then Mr. Night changed his bandages and gave him some pain killers. As soon as he was ready, he was led down to the kitchen to get some breakfast by Mr. Cross. Mr. Night stayed behind to clean up.

In the kitchen there were three other strange skeletons. When they got there he had to wait outside for a bit so that everything could be explained to them. Dream didn't understand why he couldn't be in there, but waited anyway. These strange people had been so nice to him after all! So he should be nice back!

A few minutes later Mr. Cross told him he could come in now. Inside the room he was able to get a better look at the three strangers from before. One of them had his hood up and strangely coloured eyelights, one of them were red and the other was blue circled with red, they looked so cool! The next one had a bright red button on his top, no eyelights and big black tear marks on his face, it was strange because he could feel positivity from him. Finally there was one with one bright red eyelight and a big hole in his skull, he wondered how it got there.

They certainly seemed to be an odd bunch.

“Hi! My name is Dream, who are you?”

They seemed a little taken aback by his attitude. Maybe older him acted differently now?

“Um… hey there Dream, I'm… Killer.”

“That's an odd name.”

“Sup, I'm Dust.”

“Is that because you like dusting?”

Everyone else in the room began to laugh. This confused the guardian. Had he said something funny?

“Nah, it ain't because o’ that kid.”

“Oh.”

“Hey squirt, I'm Horror.”

“Hiya, you look kinda cool!”

“Thanks. Now didn't you come down here to get some food in ya?”

“Oh yeah!” He turned around to face Mr. Cross. “Can I have toast?”

“Of course.”

After a bit Dream sat down at the table with a plate of toast and a mug of milk. Mr. Horror was very nice to him. He said he reminded him of his brother. And he promised that his brother was very cool indeed!

**********

It was the middle of the afternoon. Dream had spent all morning playing fun games with his new friends, but two of them got bored and decided to play some video games instead. So for now he was watching Mr. Dust, Mr. Cross and Mr. Killer play games.

It was awesome! He had never seen anything like it. They told him that they were playing it on a ‘TV’. He had never heard of a ‘TV’ before, maybe it was a new thing in the future? It didn't really matter all that much to the guardian.

At some point they had offered to let him have a go, but he was happy just watching them play. They also had some really silly arguments about what happened in the game. At one point Mr. Cross sent something called a ‘Blue Shell’ at Mr. Killer and they ended up in a fight over it. They got so caught up in they fighting that Mr. Dust passed both of them and won.

It was a blast!

**********

“‘Kay lil’ bud, time for bed.”

“Aww, can I please stay up a little longer? Please?” Even in older him’s body, Dream had the art of puppy dog eyes long ago.

“Fine you can have a hot chocolate, but then straight to bed. Deal?”

“Yay!”

It was quite late for the young Dream who had been playing with Horror until now. He was really excited for his hot chocolate. Particularly because it meant that he didn't have to go to bed so soon.

As expected, his hot chocolate was delicious. While he drank it, he talked to Horror about how weird some things were. It was a really interesting conversation and he learned a lot.

Unfortunately for the young guardian it wasn't too long before he ended up in bed. Trying not to feel nervous he settled down on the bed and tried to let himself fall asleep. It was hard though. He was scared of what Mother would do to him tonight. Lying still in hopes that pretending to fall asleep would make him fall asleep fast, he heard the door to the room close. Horror had left.

Once he knew that the other person was gone, he got up and started looking for something to do. He knew that Mother might be easier on him if he fell asleep sooner, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. So he played with anything he could find to try keep him awake.

The first thing he did was play with the tissues and got a lot of fun out of it. But eventually he got bored of that, so he went around the room to try find something else to play with. Sadly, Dream wasn't able to find anything else to plausible with. Steeling his resolve, he snuck out the door and began wandering the castle to look for something to do.

He wandered for a long time, until he found a random wardrobe in the middle of a random corridor. Inside the mysterious wardrobe, he found lots of cool clothes. Picking up an armful of his favourite ones, he attempted to retrace his steps back to his room. It took a very long time, but eventually he found his way back to his room (but not without getting lost a number of times and a few close calls with being caught).

Setting out all the clothes he’d taken, he started playing dress up. He had really enjoyed his little game. Trying on all the different combinations and posing and doing silly things like that in them.

He managed to stay up playing that game until the sun was ealing over the horizon. By which point he was in a set of pyjamas asleep on the floor, exhausted from everything he'd done that day, surrounded by clothes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading.
> 
> I hope you liked this chapter. I don't think there's going to be much fluff for a while after this so enjoy some smol Dream.
> 
> I hope I'm not just awkwardly dumping info, I just have a bunch of different bits of the story and tidbits floating around my head and I want to get them out and in motion so that the version of the characters in the fic catch up with the versions in my head.
> 
> Funnily enough, even though this series of events came out of nowhere and has been in my head the shortest, I think I might have actually put the most effort into planning it. How funny.
> 
> Have a nit too tired day. Remember that while not everything goes to plan, you can still find opportunities in it ^-^🍊


	34. A Bean

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nightmare deserves a break.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you like the chapter. My concentration is sit today so I hope that does show through too much.
> 
> Remember to take care of yourself ^-^🍊

Nightmare was… concerned.

**********

Nightmare was picking up bits of tissue paper from the bed and the floor trying not to panic. It was almost fun playing with the younger version of his brother if not for the worrying discovery of a knife and a pair of scissors that were apparently in the bedside table.

‘Stars Dream, what has been going on inside that head of yours?’

Nightmare took some deep breaths and relaxed slightly. There was nothing that could be done to directly help Dream for now. All he could do was plan and hope for the best.

‘Okay, so what can be done? Let's see… there isn't much, but maybe I could ask the boys to keep an eye on the knives. Cross probably already told the others about what happened so it shouldn't be too big of an issue. What else can I do…?’

Nightmare spent a long time figuring out what could be done for Dream. He couldn't think of much, especially since his brother wasn't quite himself at the moment. He did resolve to keep an eye on if he left his room at night and to talk with him once he was back to normal though.

It wasn't too long before all the tissue was cleaned up to the best of his abilities. Although there would likely be little bits of it around the room for the next few days.

He decided that the next thing to do would be to get the knife cleaned up and put away. When he got to the living room he saw Dream beating everyone at a game of snakes and ladders he didn't even know they had. It was absolutely adorable.

“Hiya Mr. Night!”

“Hey there kiddo.”

“Guess what, we're playing snakes and ladders and I'm winning!”

“Good job Dream.”

“Are you gonna join us?”

“Maybe, but I need to do something in the kitchen first.”

“Fine, but you gotta play after.”

“Okay then, goodbye for now then.”

“Buh-bye!”

Nightmare smiled a little at how cute baby Dream was. It reminded him of when they were young and would spend time together, just the two of them. Sometimes he really missed the old days. But then again, if none of that had happened he might not have found his boys and that would have been terrible.

At the kitchen table sat Killer with a cup of tea and a book, he seemed pretty invested in it.

“Oh, hey Boss.”

“Hello Killer. What's that you're reading?”

“Just some book that Dream said I would like. It's called ‘Sans’ Multiversal Taxi Service’. I gotta say he's not wrong.”

“Sounds good. Anyway, how's Dream been?”

“He's been fine. He's a real sweet kid, yanno? But he's been beating the others pretty badly at board games since breakfast.”

“Yeah, that tracks. He was a little angel until there was area competition involved when we were little.”

“Heh, I can tell.”

“Yeah… hey Killer?”

“What is it Boss?”

“Could you keep an eye on the knives for me?”

“Uh, sure thing, but why?”

“I don't really want to say right now. I'll tell you in a while I just don't want to say anything just yet. Okay?”

“Okay then.”

“Thank you.”

**********

Nightmare had a lot of fun playing board games with his boys and Dream that morning. Unfortunately after they had lunch he had to leave them to go do the last of his paperwork.

‘Ugh, this is why I hate putting things off. Look at it, bloody mountains of the stuff.’

Settling down for the rest of the day, he set to work getting as much paperwork done as possible. With all the paperwork out of the way he'd have more time to focus on dealing with the issues that are bound to show up with the memories.

And so, Nightmare spent the rest of the day working. He did go doth for dinner and got told all about what the others had gotten up to during the afternoon. He had a good laugh at the story of how Killer accidentally got hit in the face during a heated game of Smash Bros.

Once dinner was dealt with, he went back to work. He trusted his boys could keep Dream more entertained than he could. Overall he was having a pretty good day if you didn't count the first half of the morning. Nothing of note happened until around ten that evening.

Nightmare was still dealing with the paperwork when he sensed Dream leaving his room. Nightmare decided to follow in the shadows to make sure that his little brother was okay without disrupting him.

The wandering made him very nervous, the events earlier in the day still looming over him. He had to stifle a sigh of relief when he saw Dream taking clothes out of the cupboard. He was scared that it would end up being something worse, but he should have known that he wasn't as bad off back then.

Well, maybe only a little better if he was remembering their argument right (if it could even have been called an argument) his brother’s issues started when he was young.

Little Dream probably just wanted different clothes to wear or something. And with the knit ledge that his brother was okay he left to go back to work. He still had a lot of important stuff to get through after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading.
> 
> I feel like I keep adding stuff and then not using it again so I'm trying my best to keep things I've established relevant. I hope I'm doing a good job of that.
> 
> On another note, his was literally just supposed to be like a two or three shot and now it's at 34 chapters. Damn, that must be the power of getting distracted and world building. Like there are things that I came up with before I started writing this/near the very start of writing this that haven't even gotten the chance to add in yet.
> 
> The fiction I mentioned in this chapter was 'Sans' Multiversal Taxi Service' by hekmat. Here's the link:  
> https://archiveofourown.org/works/28945098/chapters/71023218
> 
> Have a mentally stable day. Remember to never plan a murder where someone else can hear ^-^🍊


	35. A Stone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream is, infact, confused by all the clothes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you like this chapter. I hope it's good, I had some trouble writing this, but I think it turned out okay.
> 
> Remember to take care of yourself ^-^🍊

Dream was… disoriented.

**********

“Where am I?” Were the first words out of Dream’s mouth after waking up. Looking around he saw that he was lying in a pile of pastel clothes. He tried to reorientate himself. His bones ached and he wasn't able to move them without making it worse. The nausea was also a big deterrent.

Taking a moment to spot his head from spinning, he realised something. “I'm free.” He dared not speak above a whisper. He… he wasn't stone anymore. He could walk and talk and breathe and  _ live _ . But before any of that he needed to find out where he was. He doubted it was his brother who left him here, so maybe someone took him and left him in a wardrobe as a statue and when he changed back he fell out. That seemed plausible...right?

Whatever that case was, he should still see if there was a way to escape. Even if it wasn't his brother, who ever moved him might not be happy their ‘statue’ was gone. The first order of business was to check that his magic was working okay. He tried summoning a portal first, but nothing happened. ‘Whelp, there goes the easy way out.’ Next he tried summoning an arrow. He tried that a few times before giving up on magic.

‘Looks like that's off the table for now then.’

Picking out his favourite clothes from the mess surrounding him. Dream began the struggle to get the pyjamas he had on off so he could put on clothes he would be able to walk around in.

His trousers were the first to go as the easiest thing to remove and what he saw confused him. There were bandages wrapped around his right leg, but that didn't make sense, if he was a statue before he wouldn't have needed bandages. Something wasn't adding up.

After a bit of squirming, he removed his top to find that the bandages continued all the way up to his collar. Carefully the guardian started unwrapping the bandages on his arm. What was underneath shocked him. An intricate spider web of cracks covered his arm, petering out further up. He didn't know what to think.

Slowly he moved his arm, testing it out. Aside from a few twinges and the ache that covered the right side of his body, he was fine. The cracks all appeared to be surface level. After future inspection he found that they looked to have originally been somewhat deep, but seemed to have been healed.

‘I must have been unconscious when I changed back, that's the only explanation for all of this.’

Deciding that it would still be best to find an escape route or two if possible, Dream did his best to wrap up his arm again and wriggle into the clothes he had picked out. He struggled to his feet, using the nearby furniture to help himself up. It hurt, but it'd be worth it with the security having a way out would provide.

It was irritating having every move ache, but what could he do?

Making his way out the door took a long time, however the guardian refused to let anything get in his way. He would learn more about what was happening. He refused to let any other outcome take hold.

After a few minutes struggling down the corridor he bumped into someone. They were a skeleton monster monster that monster that looked strangely like him, but in a hoodie. Looking up to the monster’s face he saw a big gaping hole in his skull.

It was terrifying. The guardian had never seen anyone, monster or human, living with such a devastating injury. He was tempted to try and help this monster, but stopped when he saw the person's face properly. A too wide grin stretched across the strangers face and his eyes, oh starts his eyes. He only had one eyelight on, it was engorged beyond what it should be able to and and it glowed a bloody and putrid red. Poor Dream felt like prey under the man's gaze.

“Well hello sleeping beauty.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading.
> 
> This chapter took me way longer than it would normally take to write ;~; I think it was because my emotions decided to more or less peace out before I got a start on this. Either way, I just hope they get off their bullshit before I get a start on tmrw's chapter. I almost didn't get today's chapter out bc of this shit.
> 
> Sorry, it's just annoying having trouble writing something when you know what you want to write. I had to go sit on my roof just to figure out that I wasn't actually having trouble bc I was tired, but bc of the mild apathy that the tiredness was hiding.
> 
> Sorry, that was kinda a vent I'll leave you in peace now.
> 
> Have a warm day. Remember to take time for self reflection ^-^🍊


	36. A Scare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The younger version of Dream find Horror very scary.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope this new chapter is good. I had trouble getting started on this, but once I managed to get into it it actually ended up going okay. I may or may not have been having trouble keeping my eyes open by then of writing this chapter thoughost. XD
> 
> Thank you so much for 3200+ hits, 130+ kudos and 15 bookmarks, I seriously can't believe that that many people have seen my fic let alone liked it! And a massive thank you to everyone who has commented on my fic. Your comments really help me stay motivated to get this story written. You're all incredible!
> 
> Remember to take care of yourself ^-^🍊

Nightmare was... organising.

**********

At soon as the terrifying stranger spoke, Dream was shaken out of his stupor and ran the other way. The adrenaline coursing through him kept him going. His aching limbs screamed at him to stop, but he couldn't, who knew what could happen if he did. What seemed to have been blood splatters on the monster's clothes gave his imagination something to run with and oh boy did it.

The guardian did his best to push the distressing thoughts aside. He had to be positive. He might be in danger, but that didn't give him the right to let himself hurt others because of it. He reached to find anything positive he could latch onto.

‘There are no footsteps behind me, so that's good.’

Focusing on that thought gave him hope of getting away for this strange and stoney building. The building itself was huge. It was bigger than anywhere he had been before. He allowed himself to slow to a cautious walk. He had spent a good while moving and since there didn't seem to be anyone following him, he felt that he was okay to do so.

Now that he was moving at a much more relaxed pace, the thick socks he had decided to put on before leaving his room were quieting his footsteps. The barely there sound of his cushioned feet and the warm glow of the burning torches was almost comforting. A chilled wind blew past Dream and suddenly he was glad for choosing the warmer looking clothes from the pile.

However, the further he travelled, the further his hope diminished. At times it felt like the floor was sloped leaving the guardian feeling as though he was journeying into the belly of the beast. As his hope was slowly extinguished he fell back on one of the first things Mother had taught him. To push down everything he was feeling.

Mentally he pictured a box. Gathering his feelings together, he pictured throwing each one in, letting the feeling go. He repeated this as much as he needed to until he felt completely empty. After locking up the box, he imagined himself picking the box up and storing it in a room far away from the rest of his mind.

Once the process was completed the hollow skeleton moved forwards. He would not stay here. He needed to be out there helping people and trying to undo whatever mess his poor brother had made while he was trapped as that statue.

He might not be able to use his magic, but as a guardian he was still able to sense people's auras. He scanned the areas surrounding him as he went forward. Finding no one nearby he continued on with the periodical sweep of the area to make sure he was well and truly alone.

**********

Horror was very confused by the events that had just occurred. One moment he was on his way to check on Dream, the next Dream was sprinting away from him.

After his encounter, he spent a good few minutes just standing there, trying to figure out what had just happened. When his mind finally caught in on what was happening he swiftly made his way to the kitchen in search of Nightmare.

Finding the kitchen quite empty of goopy, black, grouchy skeletons. Next he went to check the office and it was there that he found him bent over paperwork, intent on getting it completed. From the doorway, Horror cleared his nonexistent throat. With an annoyed sigh, Nightmare looked up from his work.

“What is it Horror?”

“Um… I went to go check on Dream earlier, like you said we should…”

“Go on.”

“Well, I sorta bumped into him in the corridor on my way to his room.”

“Yes?”

“And when he saw me he ran quick as lightning in the other direction.”

“This is going to be an issue isn't it?” Nightmare pressed his palms into his sockets before standing up.

“Round up the boys, we've got a dream to catch.”

**********

The bone chilling cold complemented Dream’s emotional emptiness perfectly. It made it much easier to keep everything locked away when there was such a strong physical force weighing down on you to the point where it's borderline overwhelming.

The cold had long since spread through his socks into his feet. The wind felt as though it was going straight through his clothes, even though they were all quite thick. His face and hands got the worst of it. His phalanges felt frozen and we're kept tucked as deep inside his sleeves as possible. His face was constantly hit with a barrage of strong winds. It was beginning to go numb.

He did his best to keep on track. To maintain a steady pace. But it was hard. The chill made the recently aggravated cracks on his right side ache and his joints stiffen. It was a nuisance.

Shivering, Dream forced himself to press on. It was impertinent that he keep moving. If he stopped, the wind would feel worse and he'd be easier to capture. Instead he stayed on course, delving deeper into the unknown depths.

**********

At the news of Dream running off into the depths of the castle, Nightmare had immediately called a meeting. Once Horror was gone from his office to get the others ready, he looked around for the distinctive presence of his twin’s positivity only to come up empty handed.

He wasn't sure why. It could be that his brother was too far away. It could be because it was too faint. It could even be because his brother wasn't feeling positive. Who knew at this point?

Well, the last option could probably be crossed off the list. This wasn't a younger version Dream, there was no way his little brother would let himself not feel positive. Not with everything that jade apparently happened to him.

Walking to his office door, he mentally prepared for the task ahead. He'd need to organise his boys into some sort of coherent unit. Maybe sending them off in pairs? Yes, that way any gaps in one person's knowledge could be filled by someone else.

Now, what should he do? He knew he couldn't be the one to find Dream. His brother's last memory was of him killing everyone from the village and then turning him to stone. An idea struck him.

‘What if I used my ability to travel through shadows to direct the boys? That could work.’

Happy with what he had planned out so far, Nightmare strode confidently to the living room. When he got there he surveyed his boys as they lined up in front of him.

“Alright, let's get started.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading.
> 
> This chapter, while having a difficult start, actually ended up being pretty nice to write.
> 
> I was going to just have Dream run into the kitchen, get scared/confused by all these new people and then have everything explained to him or something like that. And then this happened.
> 
> Fun Fact:  
> The chapter where Dream got injured was meant to be fluff, then I wrote 'Hopefully everything would go well' at the start of it and cursed myself.
> 
> I don't know if you can tell, but I quite like discibing things sometimes. I vaguely want to write something that's just describing the colour black lol.
> 
> Have a cosy day. Remember to save when you can ^-^🍊


	37. A Door

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Horror looks for Dream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you like this chapter. Ik this chapter is coming out a little later thank usual. I'm afraid I started a little late by accident. On the other hand this chapter is a bit longer than usual. I'm actually quite happy with how this chapter turned out though.
> 
> Remember to take care of yourself ^-^🍊

Horror was… hopeful.

**********

If Dream had been able to feel at that moment, he would have felt scared. As it stood he couldn't feel anything, but the sentiment was still there. If there was one thing he was grateful to Mother for, it was skills like this. As much as he had despised what She had done to him in his dreams, he couldn't deny that Her lessons were useful.

He took a moment to sit down and rest. The injuries he couldn't remember getting were borderline painful and screamed and him to take a break so he complied with their demands. He didn't want to think of what could happen if he continued on and ended up collapsing or falling unconscious due to neglecting to heed his body's warnings.

While he rested his body, he scanned the area for approaching auras. He may be resting, but that would leave him an easier target. Better to keep his guard up than let himself be caught unawares to be killed or worse.

Happy that there was no one nearby, he allowed himself to relax a little. He didn't let his guard down and he made sure to pay attention to his surroundings, but with seemingly no one following him he let himself take a moment to himself.

The fact that every so often, it would feel as if someone was watching him did nothing to discourage this. The irksome part was that every time it happened it would disappear before he could check for an aura.

His break lasted only as long as it took for the pervasive ache that covered the right side of his body to die down to a more reasonable level. Once he was more confident that he could continue onwards without damaging himself further, he moved on. He was keenly aware of the risk of being caught if he stayed in the same place for too long.

Though he walked slowly, he made steady progress. He hoped he could find an escape soon.

**********

Horror was not a fan of the deeper levels of the castle. He hated how cold and empty everything was down there and normally he couldn't be convinced to go down there even if you paid him. However despite his discomfort, he agreed to go down without hesitation.

Guilt gnawed at the edges of his consciousness. He couldn't help but feel responsible for Dream’s disappearance. He should have been more careful about how he presented himself to the guardian. He knew the other was in the middle of a reboot, but he only had about very basic knowledge of how they worked. He had been expecting a reaction similar to the one from the day before. He wasn't sure if this would be an older Dream or not, but since the younger Dream hadn't been scared of him like most kids were he had assumed that it would stay like that.

Well, you know what they say; when you assume you make and ass out of su and me.

He didn't know why the other had had such a strong reaction to him, but it wasn't important. Right now the most important thing was to find Dream and get him back to where they could dress his wounds and explain everything to him.

He had been assigned Dust as a partner. There was a silent agreement between them not to talk. They were both too worried for the odd little guardian who had managed to grow on them to do more than make awkward attempts at small talk, so they didn't talk at all.

The only time they broke their silence was when Nightmare would check in with them and help guide them. At the first fork in the maze of corridors, the gang had split. Cross and Killer went one direction as he and Dust went the other. Nightmare had gone off on his own through the shadows to search for Dream. He would have simply directed the groups towards where he sensed his twin, but according to him he wasn't able to pick up on his brother's aura.

It took a while, but eventually their boss had come back to them. Apparently he had found the guardian deep within the depths of the castle. Now that Nightmare knew where he needed to send the groups he rotated between directing Horror’s group, Killer’s group and checking in on Dream.

As much as Horror appreciated the help, he hated the uncertainty of guessing where they needed to go next to rescue the little shit. He hoped it wouldn't be long until they found him. It was so cold down here, the damaged skeleton could freeze to death, weird guardian powers or not.

And as much as he loathed to admit it, he didn't want that to happen.

The longer it took to find the younger guardian, the more worried Horror had become. Even if he hadn't liked the other at first, the dumb as had earned his begrudging respect when he had saved his  family friend. He messed up and scared Dream, he would be the one to fix it. He had to be. If he didn't then what kind of monster was he?

If he were honest with himself he might even go so far as to say that he liked the little guardian. The way he had been reminded of his brother the day before made him question how bad the other really was. Made him question how much of the differences between them now was due to time or due to something worse he didn't know about.

He refused to let his own carelessness hurt anyone longer than it had to. He had just gotten so used to being around people who didn't treat him as something to be feared that he had forgotten that his appearance was capable of scaring others in the first place.

He would never make a mistake like that again, not after it caused such a horrible disaster.

**********

Dream was resting again. He had overdone it this time and he was paying the price. His right side was screaming in pain and he had a splitting headache. He felt as if he was being watched again, but couldn't concentrate enough to push through his pain to see if it was real.

He would have liked to keep moving, but in this condition there was a good chance that doing so could dust him. His headache had lessened, at least for the moment, and he took the chance to see if there was a room nearby where he could sit down on something other than the cold stone floor. If he got lucky, he might even find something to barricade the door while he was in there.

Pouring some of his energy into looking around he spotted a room. It wasn't too far from his spot on the ground, thank the stars, so it wouldn't be as hard to reach in his current state.

Tentatively standing up, he made his way to the door. Every movement intensified his suffering, but he pressed on. The only thing on his mind was getting into that room and letting his bones rest.

Once he had managed to get in the room, he found that it seemed to be some sort of old, unused bedroom. Scanning the room for anything that could be used to barricade the door, he thanked his lucky stars when he saw a desk with a chair at it. He knew that he was too weak to move the desk as he was right now, the chair however was a different story. It looked to be light enough for him to carry. If he was right about that then he could wedge it in in the door handle to stop people from entering.

Slowly staggering over, he picked up the chair with a little difficulty. After a discoordinated stagger back to the door, he shoved the car underneath the handle. It might not not be the most sturdy means of protection, but it was the best he could do.

By the light of a flaming torch, he stumbled over to the bed. He did his best to get any dirt and dust off of it. Once satisfied with his work he laid down on it. He couldn't fall asleep lest he be caught unawares, but he allowed himself to daydream while he lay in the silent room.

**********

In his last check in, Nightmare had told them that Dream seemed to have decided to stay in the same place, at least for a while and that they were getting close. It was a relief to hear that they would have some time before the other would be moving again and that they were close to the end of their journey.

The hope that they would be able to rescue Dream from the freezing depths of the castle and get him back to the more livable parts of the castle, spurred Horror on to move even faster to the more livable wards where Nightmare said they would find Dream.

It had been a few corridors since he had seen a door. Hopefully this meant that they were due to come across a new room soon. Which meant that there was a good chance that soon enough they'd come across the guardian. Nightmare had said that Dream was sat down next to a door, therefore, find the door, find Dream

Following the winding corridor, like they had been directed to, Dust and Horror took the first sharp left. In the corridor before them stood an unassuming door. Taking note of the distinct lack of a skeleton near the door, the two scared skeletons cautiously approached the door. They held their breath and prayed that this would be where they found the lost guardian.

Slowly, Horror began to turn the handle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading.
> 
> Yes, I did have a Sanders Sides reference in there, fite me :p
> 
> It's actually been snowing just recently and it it sO HECCING COLD, JESUS CHRIST. Sorry, I'm just not a big fan of being cold.
> 
> I got myself a can of Monster today. It's not important or anything, I just wanted wanted some Monster recently and then I got it.
> 
> I'm sure I had something relevant to the fic to put in here, but once again I can't remember.
> 
> Oh! This isn't it, but I'm going to try get my side fic on the Dead Zone finished soon. I want to try get it out within a week, but I make no promises.
> 
> Have a not cold day. Remember that you are so incredibly important and no one can take that away from you ^-^🍊


	38. A Question

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Horror is doing his best.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoy this chapter. I might have been a little distracted while writing this chapter, hopefully it doesn't show.
> 
> Remember to take care of yourself ^-^🍊

Dream was… guarded.

**********

Horror attempted to push the door open... only to find that it wouldn't budge. Figures. Well at least he knew where Dream was now.

Turning to Dust, he whispered back and forth with the other as they planned how to approach the younger version of the guardian

**********

Dream was rudely startled from his reverie when the door handle began to turn squeakily. He was quick to act. Slowly, yet steadily, he moved to hide himself from the door as much as possible. He couldn't do much without being noisy, so instead of getting out of the old bed to hide, he quietly curled himself up into a ball and did his best to make it look as though he weren't there, using the pillow and blanket to try and make it seem like there was nothing there except a pile of bedclothes on the bed.

When whoever was trying to get in finally attempted to push the door open, Dream peaked his head out slightly and saw the chair stand its ground as it held firm. Behind the door, the person trying to enter grumbled. He knew that normally he would find it amusing and he found himself almost longing for the feeling to return. He knew better than to indulge such silly and potentially dangerous notions though and squashed down the idea before anything more could come of it.

On the other side of the door the guardian could me out two different voices. There was a deeper and rougher one that sounded a bit like the monster he saw earlier. The other voice was more mellow and was smoother overall.

‘Maybe they'll think the door is locked and walk away. It's not the most likely though, outcome considering they still haven't left. Oh well.”

Reaching out to sense the two people's auras, he attempted to sense how positive they were. They were probably close enough that he might even be able to get an idea of what it was those feelings were. It was a massive invasion of privacy to read their emotions like that he knew, but if he didn't he could be in danger.

Satisfied with his reasoning, the guardian poured almost all his focus into reading the strangers’ auras. He had gotten just enough rest before these people arrived to be able to check auras again. The pain that had previously prevented him from focusing had now dulled significantly.

There were two auras behind the door. One was hopeful and relieved. ‘Darn, looks like they know I'm in here then.’ The other aura was a little fainter, it was also relieved, even if it was to lesser degree than the other one, he could sense other emotions in there, but they seemed too nebulous to be pinned down.

Although the auras didn't really reveal much about their intentions, Dream was pleased with the decreased likelihood of violence. Behind the door, he sensed a shift in the stronger aura before the door door was firmly knocked upon.

“Erm, I'm sorry for scaring you earlier? If it's okay with you, could you talk to me? You-you don't have to leave the room or anything if you don't want to, but you're probably confused about what's going on and I think I'll be able to answer your questions.”

Cautiously, Dream reached out to check the aura of the person as they spoke to check for any telltale signs of them being disingenuous or having ulterior motives. Once he was satisfied that the monster wouldn't attack him, he gingerly made his way to the door. He dragged the blanket along with him.

Wrapping the thick blanket around him and sitting down next to the door, he spoke, an uncertain blandness surrounded his words.

“Okay then.”

Dream was almost certain that whoever he was talking to was celebrating on the other side of the door.

“Okay, great, thank you. So, um, I guess I can answer questions first, so you can start with that if you want?”

“Alright. My first question is… who are you?”

“My name is Sans, but I go by Horror. I come from an AU called Horrortale.”

“Second question, what exactly is an AU? I have an idea but I'm not entirely sure I understand.”

“Well, an AU is basically a universe where things are similar,but due to whatever reason there's something unique about it. For example, my AU is a potential outcome for the original universe where someone called Undyne became ruler and there is a famine. Sorry Sorry again for spooking you earlier. Thanks to what happened back in my world I look a lot scarier than most other Sanses.”

“Oh, okay. Em… where am I?”

“I don't know the name of the AU, but it's pretty out of the way so me and the gang set up a base here. You're currently pretty deep in the castle we settled into. Sorry I can't give a better answer.”

“How did I get here and why do I look different than normal?”

“Oh, I've got this!” the other voice spoke up, “Older you got into trouble and now you're in his body. He got hurt beforehand though, so that's why you're currently injured. It was a pretty bad injury, and it was quite a recent injury so that's why you look so different.”

Since he hadn't given his name, Dream decided to start calling him Mellow in lieu of his real name.

“Oh, I guess that sounds cool.”

“Can I ask a question?”

The first voice, Horror, was back.

“Go ahead.”

“What's the last thing you remember from before you woke up? I'm asking so that we have more of an idea of stuff we might need to tell you.”

“My-my brother ate a negative apple and turned me to stone. I'm not sure how long I have been trapped in there, but I know it's been a long time.”

“Okay, give me a moment to think of what you need to know… well for one thing you're on good terms with Nightmare right now...”

“Wait! Sorry to interrupt you, but I'm on good terms with Nightmare? Does that mean that he's part of the gang you mentioned earlier?”

“Yeah, he's actually in charge of the gang.”

“And one more question before you continue on.”

“Shoot.”

“What is a 'castle'?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading.
> 
> Okay, but if you haven't seen the amazing lyric comic 'The Killing Kind' by TheGrinningKitten (I hope i got the name right) then your missing out. Someone even put it up on yt w/ it put to the song and it's soooo good. Actually I think the person who made it haso an ao3 account. I'm pretty sure I came across one of their comics a while back. Sorry, I just have the song for it stuck in my head which inadvertently left the comic stuck in my head.
> 
> I apologise for my rambling there.
> 
> I'm not sure how well I got the questions done, but I think (re: hope) I did okay.
> 
> Have a swell day. Remember that you are worthy ^-^🍊


	39. A Chat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nightmare catches up with the boys.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you like this chapter. Sorry this is late, I was having a hard time writing it and ended up having to give up on it and come back to it later.
> 
> Remember to take care of yourself ^-^🍊

Nightmare was… reassuring.

**********

Dust found it pretty interesting to see what questions this Dream asked. From what little he had managed to glean from comments Nightmare had made over the years, Dream wouldn't have left his AU by this point. The questions and answers that the peculiar little skeleton gave helped to show some insight into what his world was like.

Well it would have if he had actually been paying attention. After a few minutes Dust found himself quite bored and started spacing out. He figured that Nightmare would arrive soon, either with these other two, or to check in and see how things were going.

‘Speak of the devil.’

“Hey Boss.”

Beside him Nightmare popped out of the shadows. Horror jumped next to him and a sharp intake could be heard on the other side of the door. He took a moment to contemplate how Dream must be feeling about his brother’s sudden appearance. Probably not great, but then again what would you expect when his last memory of his twin was of him turning him to stone.

“Hello Dust. You two found him did you?”

“Yup. He's in the room, but doesn't want to come out yet.”

“What time is he from?”

“The last thing he remembered was being a statue.”

“Okay then.” Nightmare turned to the door. “Hey Dream. Would it be okay if i went in and had a little talk with you?”

It was a long moment before a quiet reply came from the other side of the door.

“O-okay I guess…”

“I'm going to head in now. I look like how I probably did the last time you saw me, just so you're not surprised by my appearance.”

Dust watched as the guarding slipped back into the shadows. Sitting back against the wall, he decided that he might as well start spacing out again.

**********

Nightmare wasn't sure what to expect when he went into the room Dream had blocked himself into. What he didn't expect though, was to see his twin sitting on the ground with a blank look on his face. He found it rather unsettling to see his brother, who usually seemed to be so expressive, look so empty.

“Hello brother.”

“Hey Wispy. You look different.”

“I suppose I do, don't I.”

“Yeah…”

“So… how are you?”

“I'm fine.”

“Are you sure? You have been running around injured for quite a while.”

“I suppose my right side hurts a little…”

“Alright. Do you want to come with me? Once we're upstairs we can take a look at it.”

“That sounds fine.”

“You got any questions before we go?”

“Just the one. Why does it feel so empty here? This place is so big, but there's barely anyone around.”

“Umm… that's… that's because this is an empty world. Long before I arrived here something happened to the people who lived here, leaving this place as an empty universe. It was on the edges of the Multiverse and easily overlooked, so I moved in with my boys.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah. You ready to go now?”

“Uh yeah, I think so.”

Nightmare bent down to his little brother, holding his hand out to him. Tentatively, Dream took it. His face seemed just as blank as before, but the trust he was putting in him made the older brother think that maybe he wasn't going to stay this way for long.

With the shorter skeleton now standing, the taller twin took this chance to remove the chair from the door. Behind said door he heard lots of moving around. He shook his head fondly. ‘These idiots.’

He opened the door to see the two skeletons trying to look as unobtrusive as possible and failing badly. Still holding his brother's hand, he walked out into the corridor.

“Okay, you ready to make a move?”

“Yup.”

“Yeah.”

“Alright, let's go then.”

The walk back to the main floor was long. They met up with Killer and Cross before long and the rest of the journey was spent answering questions and telling jokes.

“Hey Mellow, what's that thing on your wrist?”

“My name is Dust and it's an aid for teleporting.”

“I don't care, you are Mellow. Why do you need an aid to teleport?”

“Because this world doesn't have a proper connection to the Multiverse so we need this thing to get in and out of here, brat. Only a few people are able to get in and out without needing one of these things.”

Dream looked back over to Nightmare. In turn the older brother cocked his head to one side, curious as to what the younger Dream wanted to ask.

“D-does that mean I amn’t connected to the Multiverse?”

“Yes, it does. You okay with that?”

“Y-yeah. I think I'm going to need a moment though.”

It was at that point they finally reached the living room.

“Okay,” Cross said, “I'll go grab the medical supplies and then we can get to work.”

“Excuse me, but is there someone else in your gang?”

“No, why?”

“There's a portal over there.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading.
> 
> I'm sorry again for uploading this later than usual. I kept thinking of what the mythology that I'm not planing on even starting to write for a good while and that's mythology would be barely relevant to and got distracted.
> 
> Heh, I have an entire line up of fics I want to write of varying lengths, but I can't start any of them until I finish this. They're all really different from each other to. Eh, whatever, I'll just do my best to focus only this story for now. Maybe I'll even be able to use the upcoming midterm break to finish writin the side fic.
> 
> Have a happy day. Ram3mber to do things at the pace that best suits you ^-^🍊


	40. A Tale

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We take a look back at a story from long ago.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you lie this chapter. I've been really looking forward to writing it since I decided that I was going to do it!
> 
> Remember to take care of yourself ^-^🍊

Error was… unsure.

**********

Dream settled down with a new book. Today he felt like reading some Error stories. He got a few different types of AUs, the most curious of which had a descriptor he hadn't come across yet: “FGOD!Error”. He was quite looking forward to seeing what it was about, so he had decided to read it first. After all it was pretty short, even if it wasn't great it wouldn't be a waste.

It was called “A Tale Of Rebirth”. A little extra in the guardian's ‘humble’ opinion, but it wasn't his origin story. Opening up the little book, Dream got a start on the (very) short story.

_There once was a lonely little Geno. Even though the little Geno had managed to leave the save screen and join his Sans and the others on the surface, he found he didn't quite fit in anymore. So the little Geno began experimenting like he had once done in his half forgotten past._

‘This is a little strange,’ Dream thought to himself, ‘I thought this story was supposed to be about Error?’

_At first the determined monster did small experiments. Only testing small things that he had wondered about while watching his old home from his old prison. Tiny little ideas that he didn't have the equipment to test._

_Soon, though, the little Geno found more curiosities to examine. As he was consumed by a thirst for knowledge, he withdrew more and more from his friends and family. They grew worried about him, but he ignored their attempts to help him. He slowly stopped caring about anything but his science. The longer he spent in his little lab the worse it became._

‘That doesn't sound good, I hope he's okay.’

_After many months of his new obsession taking over his life, the little Geno was thinking of what his next experiment should be. All of a sudden he thought of one of the few things he hadn't looked into yet. His_ **_DETERMINATION_ ** _._

‘This can only end badly.’

_He jumped out of bed and ran to his lab as quickly as possible, not even stopping to change out of the casual clothes he had been wearing. Disregarding all the strict safety rules he was usually so good and slot upholding._

_The moment he got into the lab he began planning and designing experiments to learn more about_ **_DETERMINATION_ ** _, particularly his own determination, and what it could do. After he started work on this new project, the little Geno spent many long days and nights toiling away over his work._

_Perhaps this constant strain on his body and mind was what ultimately led to his downfall._

‘Oh dear, what's going to happen to Geno?"

_One day, while conducting an experiment of his own design, he made a terrible mistake. There is no way to know whether it was a simple misstep in following the process he had devised or an outright flaw in the experiment. It doesn't matter which it was because either way the result was the same._

_With this one error, the poor little Geno had erased his timeline._

'Oh shi-’

_All his friends and family were gone. Destroyed by his own foolishness. And now he was the lone survivor of his world, trapped in an endless white plane._

_The poor little Geno spent a long time in the absolute oblivion. It reminded him of the Void he half remembered a person he once knew falling into. It had been an endless black pit, all consuming and all destroying. This place, in his eyes, was the reverse of that. An endless stretch of white, to the tiny skeleton it felt like everything at once, an all seeing presence that knew everything to ever exist._

‘I'm guessing this is the Anti-Void, although not gonna lie that description doesn't sit quite right with me.’

_However, the poor little Geno was not made to exist in such such a place. It was maddening. He screamed and cried, but all in vain, for this antithesis to the Void cared not for its solitary occupant and did not even give it the reprieve of hearing its own echo._

“Nooo, poor Geno. What's going to happen now to the poor bean?’

_So lonely and out of place was the insignificant skeleton that the very core of his being could not handle the horrible pain of this place, this… this_ Anti-Void _._

_The strain on his fragmented soul caused it to start cracking. At first it was minor, barely noticeable, but before long it got so severe it caused the poor little Geno to reboot. He fell unconscious, glitching slightly in his corruption induced slumber. His magic was attacking the errors in his code, trying to heal him. But after his mind was shut down, the rapid progression of errors meant that he would soon die. His dust being the only colour in the entirety of the Anti-Void._

‘Oh jeese, I hope he makes it out okay somehow. This sounds so painful.’

_However, a deity from above took pity on the poor monster. Reaching out with careful hands, Fate helped the Falling skeleton. Using her godly abilities, she fashioned his fragment of a soul into a fully formed one. She reached out and in her kindness she stopped the errors. She was not able to completely erase their presence, but she prevented their progression._

‘Yes, Geno is going to live!’

_Mending his clothes, body and soul was taxing on Fate. Stabling the small monster was hard due to the rarity of the need to do so. As such, the process was imperfect. The deity was incapable of fully restoring the one she chose to save. When she saved him, the rebooting process had been disrupted, causing all of the poor little Geno’s memories to be erased and magic corrupted._

‘Fuck.’

_In her everlasting kindness, Fate gifted her chosen one with new magic. Looking down upon the fragile being she helped, the most gracious deity also gifted her chosen one with a new name and a new purpose._

‘O...kay…’

_She fondly bestowed the name ‘Error’ onto the reborn being before her. A reminder of what she saved him from._

_She whispered new purpose into his soul. She had a chosen one, her child Ink, whom she had adopted from an abandoned world. Her child loved to create. However, there was a limit to how much space there was for his creations. Not wanting to burden her precious child, she asked Error to watch over her Multiverse and cull any potential over population._

‘Alright, this bitch is starting to sound kinda sus.’

_This was her only request from the one she had so lovingly rescued from death's door. A most glorious task to be bestowed on anyone._

_Before she left Error she left a few of her strings wrapped around his soul to stay connected to the one she had taken into her embrace. And in this Anti-Void, while she could not bring him friends, she left voices for him to talk to so he would no longer be lonely._

‘No, isn't just kinda sus, this shit’s hella sus. The fuck is this motherfucker doing?’

_The former scientist woke up confused for he did not know a thing. The voices told him when he asked._

_“Who am I?”_

_“‘“You are Error.”’”_

_“Where am I?”_

_“‘“You are home.”’”_

_“Why am I here?”_

_“‘“You are here to protect as told by our Lady.”’”_

_“Why is it so empty?”_

_“‘“This place has nothing in it.”’”_

_“Is there a way to change that?”_

_“‘“Yes, let us teach you.”’”_

_The voices taught the young Error many things before he started his divine duty. They told him how to use his strings. How AUs worked. How to create windows. How the Multiverse functions. How to summon the corrupted remains of his old magic. What out codes were. Finally they taught him how to turn his old windows into portals._

_Now ready to leave, Error set out into the great Multiverse to carry out the duty given to him by the Great Lady Fate._

“Well that was a thing.” Dream said aloud to no one in particular.

It had been a part of a series, but the little guardian didn't feel like reading it today. Maybe another time though?

As he took the next book from his pile, Dream wondered what the Error he had been reading about was doing.

**********

Back in the present, Error was lying in the hammock he made for himself with his strings. The voices had been quieter since Ink had stopped creating so much. It was a breath of fresh air for the often overworked skeleton.

Ever since Dream had been kidnapped, the squid apparently had somehow managed to concentrate on something for more than five seconds. Not that he was complaining, he was delighted to have less work to do, in fact with all this new free time he was able to visit Nightmare and the boys more often.

He knew Dream had been wandering around in there, but had yet to bump into the little nuisance.

Sitting up, he thought of the last time he had visited his friends. The concept of time had little meaning in the Anti-Void. He had decided to go for a nap a while ago, but he couldn't be sure how long he had slept for.

Ignoring the voices telling him to destroy and ignoring the strings gently tugging on his soul, he opened two blocky portals. One led to Red’s chocolate stash, from which he liberated a few chocolate bars. Once he had gotten what he wanted from there he let the portal close up.

The other portal he had opened led to his friends’ home AU. It'd be inaccessible for most monsters, but due to the strange nature of the Anti-Void, Error had no problems getting in and out.

He stepped through his portal to the castle, taking a chocolate bar with him of course. On the other side of the portal he saw the whole gang plus Dream standing together looking at him.

“H̷̷͍͙̮̜̬͈̖ͨ̄̒ͦę͇͔̺ͯ̕͜ȳ̷̨̹̜̜̜̙͓̜̗͉ͯ̅̐̂͑ͪ̋, ̛̺͎͖͕̼̓͐̏́ ̟̥̫͊͛͋͂͆͝s̶̻͔̰̉̓̓̏̈́̍̽͊̅o̦̟̅ͧͨͫ̊͐̀ͪ̚ ̧͔̯̞͚̥̠̱̟̅͘w̜̳̪̾̂͂̅ͮ̄͗h̴̼̓͊̓͘͜ͅā̦͈̫͇̭̆ͯ̏̎͆t̹͖͈̞̹̝̠̥͋͂̑͢ ̸͈̣͎̲̺̰̹̬̖̐ͩͪ͛͟͡dͩ̏̎ͨ̅̅̒҉̷͓̳̦̦͙͈̺͇̻i̴̤̬͉̝͕ͭ̆͋̍͡d̶ͧͨ̓̿̈͒͊̾͟҉̳͇̗͚͙̳ ̶̷̵̩͎̩̱͈̯̻̉ͪͥ͆̓̋͐̍I̷̝̙̘̭̫̖̬ͫͧ͠ ̴̢̼͚͊ͤ͂ͥͫ̿ͪ͘m̷̟̹̠̼͚̯̲̪̓ͬ̈́ͬ̾ͫͬ͜͞į̴͙̼͔͕͎̪͑ͦ͂͆͑ͦ̒͠sͮ̿͐͏̨̰̰s̴ͤ͑͆͆ͪ҉͉̙̰͔ ̸͇̺͔̣͇̱ͤ̚ͅw̨̦̫ͯ̇̉̎̑ͣ̉ḧ̬̤̫̫̟̳͉̹́͐́͜͡ͅi̱̩̺̋̂ḻ̢͕̜̰̦̺ͯ͢e̗̦̱̩̥̺͐̈́̌̈͘͞ ̩̮̞̬̤̈ͧ͢͠I̲̙͇͂͛͗͌ͥ̽͋́̚ ͍͓ͧͪ͋͢w̴̜̫͈̬̦̺͗͆̾̀͌̓ͫa̬̯̋̇̅́̀̃͡ș̡̛̣̜̎ ̠̣͙̝̈͒̒ͣ͋̿́ͅg̡̲̟͈͓͆ͧͣ͆͐̍ͫ̋o̜͍͉͚̩͆̾̚ͅn̞̩͉͇̲̈̊͑͋͞eͧ̅̈́̅̕͏̜̠̰͇̲͖? ̴̥̤̥̺̭̞͙̠̾"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading.
> 
> And Error has officially arrived. Ik that the backstory might not fit in super well here, but I really wanted to have it in here without only being able to sprinkle in some little tidbits here and there.
> 
> Also, I'm going to post Error's story seperately for the purpose of making all the logic in here work properly, since Dream technically shouldn't be able to read it otherwise.
> 
> Have a benevolent day. Remember not to make deals unless you know what you're doing and any conditions there may be ^-^🍊


	41. A Debut

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Error has entered the chat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you like this chapter. I've drunk two cans of Monster. My plan is to take a break from wring to drink the other two Monsters I have and then write the next chapter. That should be up in the next few hours.
> 
> Remember to take care of yourself ^-^🍊

Nightmare was... tired.

**********

“Wispy, who is that?”

In front of Dream stood a strange skeleton. He was black and glitchy and had bright blue tear marks trailing down his face. Despite the sad look, he sensed some bubbly positivity from the monster which usually meant amusement. The stranger was a little disconcerting, prompting Dream to tighten his grip on his brother's hand.

“That's Error, he's a friend of our group.”

“He doesn't look very friendly.”

“He's a big softy really.”

Nightmare let go of his hands and walked over to Error. It seemed like they hadn't gotten to talk to each other in a while, so they were probably just having a quick catch up.

While his brother was busy doing that, Dream decided to go sit down on the couch with Horror. They started talking about whatever while waiting for Cross to get the medical supplies.

**********

“Hey Error.”

“Ḥ̙͈̗̻ͩ̌͂̈́̊͊͘͠ę̱̘̯̣̻̈́ͭ͂̃̐̊ͮy̸̰̤̺̘̓͑͆̅̇͜.̷͔̮̋͛̎ͤͣ̓̆ ́ͦ̿̀ͦ͗҉͇Ṣ̢̨̲̼̙̈ͤo̞̰͖̺̤̬ͬ͂ͥ̓͠,̰̯̙ͭͤ̑͛͘͘ ̛͓̩ͬͪͯͥ̈́̎͡ÿ̶̢̡͇̟̗̼̖̓͐̓ͩ̒o̭̫͒ͫ̀͛͛ͬ͟u͖͍ͫ͊͜ ̴̦͙̮̳̫̅͐̃ͪ̅̌̇̿g̻̬͍̲͎̓̇̈̈́̆̈ǫ̛̫͇͖͗ͨͨ́̆ͯ͠ͅn̩̘͍̤͈̜̯̥͕ͦ̊̋͝͠n͍̦̜̮̱̫ͤ̊̇͋ä̴͕͚̜͈͖͓̿̾ͨ̉ͧ́ͅ ̷̢̮͍͙͙ͯͨt̴̡̻͍̖̯͉̠̦̞̫̍̀ͦ̅ẽ̴͒̄̊̍̿ͯ͏͍̙̩͙̤̼̫͚ͅḷͩ̍ͪ͡l͈̙̟͚̰̂ͥͦ͛̽ͥͣ̋͝ ̟͍̖̤̜̞̮͔ͤ͗̈́͌̋͆͌̆ͅm̢̠̬͚̤̲̝͛̕ë̶̩́ͅ ̡̲̼̥̜̱ͣ͋ͥw̸̴̪̜̦̬̯͌͌ͨͬ̔͐h̴̍ͣ́̇̐̓̽̉҉͖̥̹̟̖̺̺á̢̱͓͚̩͊͢ͅt̷̗̠̼͕̭͓ͨͬ͂̐͂̅ͪͪͯ͜'̸̨͍̜̘̙̱̹͂͐̈́̃̈̽͢s̛͕̪̞͉͖͖̈̆ͣ ̭̝̫̟̹̞̘̗ͩ̍ͪ̎́͜g̶̵͔̪̜̥̟̖̬͕̾͂͊̿ͦ̈́ơ̶͕͓̫̰͋ͤ̾͗̈i̷̹͖̪̰̦̮̇̌̈ͯͫͭ̄̊ͅn̡͚̺̗̲͋ͩ̈́͝g̰̝͔͇̫͖ͮ̐ͪͣͯ͂͊ ̢̮͕ͩ̒̇̀̑̑͑͊͟o̸͙̲̥͔̣ͬͮ̄̐ͩn̨̡̟̠͈͚̩̘͇͐̑?̲̞̳̞ͫ͋̆͒̽ͭ ̡̹̖͙̦͇̗̊̏͌̽͘B̸̡̯̟̯̼̰̠͔͕͗͆̉͑͠é̟͍̫̝͓̹͖̹͍̌̅c͙̪̼͖͊̂ͫ͌̐ͬ̽̚͢͜͡â̲̮̮͙̫̼ͪ͆̄̇̔̈́͡ǔ̩̬ͧ̋ͮs̴̹͑ͭę̶̧̘̜̝͋ͪ̊͆͗͂͐ ̘̭͔͎̼͓̲͋ͯ͡Ī͉̗̱ͩ̍̐͂̿͒̑͠ ͇͙͉̼̎̉̓ͤͮͧͥ̏͡c̵͔̺͍̬͖͔̦̓̑͘a̷͈̯̣̭̺̬͓̹̓ͭ̋̾̒̈́ͮ͡n̵̘̮̗̗͆ͮ ̘̗̗͈̟̣̟͂͋ͅͅt̡̛̗̳͔̝̪̝̔̈̽̾e̡͕̖̻ͤ̑̋͒͋͘l̨̞̗̪ͭͭͥͤͪḽ͖̜͇̰̙̳̯̼ͬͮ͊ͨͯͧ̊̚̚ ̡̖̥ͣ̾ͥͩţ̵͎̟̝̻̗͉̗̗̞̍̅͐̊̆͛h̢̗̻̬͈̺͕ͤ̆̽a̺̰͍͚̗̩ͭ͗̊̃͞͠t̢̟̙̪̹͉̣̼̃̈̈͑ͫͅ ̡̢̢̭̩̦͍͋̀̀ͧ̚š͙͉̈̃̎̈́̋͘o̖͓̼̲͈̭ͨ͋ͤ͛̌m̩͈̮̗̓ͮͭͮͫ͊̎̚e̢ͬ̿͗͛̏͛̈́͏͉̭͖̖͈͚̤͚t̜͈͇̠̞͓̳̱̣̓ͮ̔̋̈́͆͠ȟ̝̘͇̰͕̱̚ï̸̷̮̫̹̽n̞̔ͨ͋̅g̡̦͎ͨ̅ͥ͆̌’̊ͫ͗͋̎͏͙̙̹̮̳̥̯s̢͇̟͇̲͉̈́͢͟ ̵̣̼̣̗̜̂ͧͯͮ̚ų̴̘̬͊̈́ͮp̷͉̳͓̦͚̩̙̖ͩ̒ͤ͌̅ͦͬ,̶̞̜̹͓̬̤̈͌ͭͭ͌ͭ̐̊ ̴̮̥̱̻͚̘̭̫̯̓̅͐̾̽͑̌ͬ͠y̙̯̙̦̠͔̟̪ͪͨ̾̄̓̕ơ͉̯̦̠̰̗̯̝̑͊̐̂̈̃̓͢ͅų̹͉͉͚̩̮̘̔̀͛̅͒ͯ'̳̻̦̒̒̂̔̃r̴̽ͪ̅̅҉̗̹͕͕͕̟̝e̓ͥ̍̅͏̶͉̥̙̰ ̯̝̞̞̬̖͖͇̘̍̓̊̽͟n̼͕̲̍̌õ͚̗̩̮̖̱̳ͦ̔̅̇̃ͤt͖ͫ̓̌̾̏̄̕͡ͅ ̝̫͔̻̺͉͖͍ͩ͑̒̇͒̓̚͢͡nͪͤͥͭͦͪͤ̓҉̱̜ò̮̲̤̲͖̰̻̘͑ͧ̕͠͝r̼̈͐͗͋̌ͧ̕͝m̴̼̳̯͎͓͉̳̃͗͗̑͐̄͢͠a̢̜͓͖̫͉̞̝͛ͦ̏ͅl̢̥͕͙̔̒l̴̜͐̚y͇͉̔̋ͩ̍ͦͨ̓ͣ̂ ̯͖̟̅̾̇̔̐ͨ̕t̨̼͓̳̪͓̖̹̔ͣ͌ͭ̆ͥ̓ͮ͢͝ȟ͍̲̼̥̝̖͈̃̉̇̆ͭͅi̷̵̝͖̍̎̈́͊͛̓ͩ̾ş̘̝̬̰̲̺͕̜͓ͥ͋͘̕ ͙̺̎͂͋͌͜t̫̗̝̻͖ͯ̌̾͐͌ͩ̉ẻ̱̦̥͊ͤ̂͢͞n̢̙͍͖̫̳̩̜ͩ̉̇̑̇͢ͅs̨̧̼̰̝̰̬̈́̐̆̆e̮̟̥̯̩̹̖͊ͭ̓̍.̴̡̤̼ͮͪ̀ͯ”

“I'll just give you a quick rundown of what's happened since you were here last. Dream and Killer went blowing stuff up in the town a while ago, then Dream came back and offered to teach the gang how to make bombs.”

“H̝̝̜̞͔̅̆ͮ̔̏͆̀͆͢e̮̯̣̲͎͕̭̫̲͛̊̾ͤ̽̉̕͢ ̝͉̪͇͔̘͇̗̅̀k̯̲͕̥̗͕̝̪̊̕͠n̴̶̻̼͈͂̔ͬ̐ͣͫo̵̝͔̻͚̣͐̾͊͂ͥ̇̎̏w̵̢̛̞̜͔͙ͦ́ş̵̖̫̘͖̜̈́̓̿̑͂̿ͪ͂ ͙͎͔̮̲̠̣̖̔̍̾̉̓͋̕͝ẖ̥̫͕̹̤͚̮ͫ̀ơ̢̖͔͙̙̟̐̔ͦ͜ͅͅw̶͖̘̼̩̄ͤ͛͒̉́ ̶̛̦̭̗̞̓̿̌̌̇̍ͦ̍͝ͅt̞͓̲͖̘͚͍̹̗͂ͪ̅̕ö̮̜̪́ͫͥ͌ͥͤ͒͡ ̭̳̜̔̽͗̔͆̏ͩ͞m̷̨̤͕̱͉͛̐̀̄ͥͭ̈̄͝ạ̘̰̠̝̹̟̙ͬ̊͒̆k̜͖͇͖̦̀̒ͨͭ͒̑̕e̴̢̟͎̜̪̥̍̋͂͌̂̈́ͪ̚ ̡̓̋͌͟҉̼͚̳̣̯̪̗͓b͚͎̝̥̻̌͑̌͠ö́̌҉͇̣͓m͍̱͈͍͛̐̂̌ͥbͩ͛ͦͮ̓ͤ̚̚҉̬s̢͈̻͖͖̠̬̰̀̓ͣ?̟͎̰̪̠̞̺̺ͫ̅̂͝!̥͉̳ͬ̏͞”

“I know, I was surprised too. Anyway. Everything was fine until the very end of the day. Long story short, Dream got hurt real bad by some debis and is in the middle of rebooting.”

“No kidding, it had to have been pretty bad if he ended up with that many cracks.”

“Trust me. It was.”

“S̰̗̺͑͆o̧ͥ̄̐͐ͥ͗̈́̚҉̥̱̺͕̩̺̳̻͡ ͙͔ͪͤ̍̀̔́̊̽w̤̱͖̣̟̩̓͐̆̎̅̒̈ͥh̷̤̹̘͌̒̽̐̿e̸͙͓͚̗̳̺̖ͧ̊̆̎̓͘͠n̲̘͚̒̒͌͌ͧ̅ͨͧ͑͞ ̣̰̖̜̔͊̐͆͛̅̎̕͡ͅͅi̟̦̻̬̝͎̱̎ͥ̇͐ͯ̄ͣ͊̐ͅs̰̲̰̰̘̘̤̃̎̿͌͒ͯ̄̚̚͞ ̶̶̆̎҉̘̻̗̦ḥ̶̟̭̤͙̐̓̚ę̰̜͈̖͎͓ͭ͗̊̈́ͭ̆ ̟͎̠ͤ̋̿a̍̂̾̓҉̺̼̲̖͇͇t͕̺̔́ͨ̎̂͐ͭ͌̽͠ ̮̱̤͎͗ͨ́̽ͭͩ̈́̓̇͜n̶̻̱͈͖͓̈́͋ͬ̉̚͢͡o̷̥̞̼͉̲̒ͨ̐ͧ̒͒ͥ̚͘w̸̙̟̬̼̖̫̥͖ͫ̍ͦ̃?̡͚̬͒̀͟ ̷͓̤͕̭̠̯͕̅ͫͮͪͫ̚M̡̢̻̼̈̈́͛̀̃u͚̞͓̖̞̺̗͍̞ͨ̉ͤ̿̚͢͝s̥͎̞͇̤̼̮ͩ̓̆̊͐̚t̓ͫ͏̘̖̥ ͔̥͉̍̓̇͆̽̀ͧ̈́ͤ͡͡ḅ̼̥̱̜͗ͨ̎̏̉͜eͣ͐̉͏̜͈ ͥͪ͏͏̭̫̪̬̜q̶̫̭̰ͩͦ̐͒ͫ͐ͅu͊̈́͏̸͚̲̹̤̬̺͚̹ǐ̬͓̩̽ͮ̑͞ͅt͇̺̰̞̥͎̳͙̾̂ͪ͒̚e͊ͫ͐͐̔͒҉̣ ͙̼͈͚̮̘͎ͯ̀̇ͧȁ͇͉̝̱̮ͫ͂ͤͪ͌ ̗͇͓͇͎̥͑͋̽̔͊ͭ͢wͤͩͪ̒̇̿͗͌҉̡̛̼̻̪̮͉ĥ̰̗̣̼̜͕̰ͧͅi͕̪̙̭̜͎̭͆ͬ̒͑̃͂͢͜l͙̦ͭ͐̓̊̅͘͡͡e͂̅̉̀̂̌̂҉̧̖͕̝̲ ̵̗͔̉̏a̢̛̤͚̦̥̩̋͑͠g̢̱̻͙̝̮͍̘̒͂ͪͬͥ͐͝o̸̻͙͇͔̙̱̐ͭ͐ ̶̣̝̹̻͉ͪͯ͋̎ͥ͛̇̒̚i̞̜̰̱̖ͮ̈́͌̽̓ͫ̕͢f̴̧͕͍̐̋̏̅̋̏̈͑ ̠̰̯̘̼͙͈ͩ̽̒̈́ͤͨ̚͜ḥ̸̢̱͓͉̽̂ͤ̃͛̏̓͟ȇ͖̦̥͇̠͔̜̓͑̏̿ͤ̎ ̨̻̼̓͌̃̉d͗̃̃̃̓́͂ͭ̚҉̡̞̩̲ơ̲̫̹̯͔̩̮̦͐̂ͧ̈́͐e̸͍̱̘̝̳̜ͣ̈́̍̊ͨ̓ͨs̗̙͍̘̥͂ͯ͘n̞̬̉ͥ͆͡'̨̜̼̱͙͎̹̈́̍t̝̞̝̗̜̦̮̔̒ͪ̆͊̊͐ͧͣ͡ ͫ̌͏̖̳̗̻̺͙̫r̴͕̅̆̈́ͦ̇e͍̙̹̼͇̗̰̋̏ͨͣͩ͐̍c̡̳̰̬͈̜͙̫̠̱͆̃ͭ͒͌͜͝ơ̦͈̝̄̃͒̕ǧ̸̼̯̱̳̌ͥ͑̓͟ņ̱͖̯́̌͌̈́́͌͗͠i̵̛̬̬̘ͨ͑͊̐ͣͪ͊̀s̸̹̩̯ͦͫe̵͍̥̖̗͔̥͚̯ͪ̒ ͕͔̺̹̺̫̟͖ͮ̋ͬ͆m̡̹͔̥͙͙̟̻̠̰ͭ̐͘è̟͔̜̼͖͓̭̥́̿́̏ͬ̄̚.̠ͯ͑̑ͨ͗͒͋͢͡ͅ”

“Remember how he was a statue for like five hundred years?”

“O̴̠̲̤̜̚͞o̜̤͙̠̥͚͉̦ͥ̓ͭ͌ͬͧ͛͜ḟ̹͓͍͔͇̝͓̐ͫͯ̿̅͐̕͡,̢̞̭̩͕̫͂̓̄ͧͨ ͌ͥͨ̈̃͊͊̈́҉͍̬͓̫̞͕h͚̫̻͓͇͇̝̅ͯ̊͛͟͠e͔̠̰̔͊̽̉̅̇͟'̸̢͚̹̥͕̣ͬ͒ͥ͐ș͈̠̋̃́ͅ ̴̸͈̤̯̫̳̝̈̑̏̅t̒̑̈ͫ̓̾ͮͭ͏̵͉̣̯͖͎͚͈̕ḧ̢͓͙̩́̐ͭ͐ͧ̓͒e̮̜̗͖̚ͅn̶̞̤ͬ̿ͬ?͚̬̓ͯ͝”

“Yup.” Nightmare said with all the enthusiasm of a dying horse.

“Ÿ͕̮̭͔͚̞ͪͣ̈́́̃̑ͫi̳̻͎̲̤͂ͨ͐͛ͭ̎ͯ̚͠k̵̪ͬ̐ͥ̇͒̎͂̄͌e͕̺̻ͪ̌͑̇ͨ͑ͪ̄͡ś̙̫̠̳̟͍̪ͣͭ̏̾͐͟.̦͓̔ͣ̅͑̉̅̏”

“And that's not the worst part.”

“O̼̺͚͙ͤ̊̓́̑̀͡͞h̦̦̦͎̝͓̪͙ͮͥͮͣ͝?̡͉̯͉̫͚̒ͬ̅̌ͬͦ”

“The first thing that happened after he left his room this morning was bump into Horror. He got spooked and we ended up having to go searching the lower floors to find him. The dumbass had been running around with all his injuries which probably made everything worse. And just… it was a whole mess.”

“D̸̯̭̣͐̑ͪ̉ǎ̻̞̚ṁ̢̖̪̥̖͂͂̏̎͡ṉ̢̬͔̫̭̹̹͋ͯͣ,̴̡̮̹͈̟̹̳̳̒̀̿ͬ̎̀́̑̃̕ ̉̋͟҉̗͔̺̱̫ť̠̩͚̣̊ḫ̸̺̺̭̰̱̟̯ͥ͝a̴͖̱̜͙͍͆͌͌͛ͩ̈́ͧ̚͟͝ͅt̢̑̈́́͆҉̥͖̳͇̗͈͠'̟̠̲̯͉̹̀̌̈́́ͮ̈s̢̮̻̟̰̞ͨ̌̋̋̉̑ͤ͞ ̝̩̬̜̿̾̍̉͂̉ͭ̅̃ͅr̵̡̭͂ͨ̊̿̉̚͢o͇̻̭̻͕̹̯͓ͥ̄u̟̗̠̽̉̇ͦͬ͞g̷̶̪͈͖̝ͪ̐ͤͨͭ̿̔͠h̼̱̬͍̗̖̋̒̒͐̾ͣ̇̃́͝͝.͍͈̼̹̗ͥ̄͒ͣͯ͂ͅͅ ̨̮̳̲͉͒ͮ̒͊͒ͧD͍̹̆̈́o̪̱̪̽ͮ̉ͨͫ̿̓͝͠ ̞̱̱̻͇̌ͯ̍̆͗̂ͧ̚͝ͅy̜̦̗̤̻̳̣̪̐̾ͧ̒ͭͦͮ̃ȍ̯̲͇̺͙̘͘u̼͈͔̦̩̪̒ͤ͗̆̓͑͢ͅ ̖̰͂͂̈̔̆ͮͯ͝ͅẘ̭̱̗̝̬̣͍ͦ̓̓̄̅̊̉͛͢͞a̹̥̒̆ͫͮ̈̕͝n̨̙͈̝͈̦̔̿͂̓͢t̸̟̘̋͆ͭ̏ͫͤ̾̾ ̼̤͇̈̋͊͂̐ǎ͎̱̮͚̞̘̥̖̔ͭ͌͋͒̓ͪ͝͝ͅn̑̓͂̓ͩ͋͆ͫ͏̳͖͓̲ÿ̸̹͇̂ͧ͊͑ͪ͌͊͡ ̶̜͖̲̪̼͖̑̂̅ͥͦͮ̇͡ẖ̶͈̙͔̝͑͋͟͠ẹ̺̓ͪͭ̏ͥ̒͡ĺ̻͓̞̦̖̋̀͛͗̈́p̗͍̽ͩ̑̚͟ ̯͙͍͎̞͇̬̆̐ͭ̋̉̍̓́͢͝w̭̪̱̘̝͚̋ͥ̂ͬ͒̊̔̚͜͟͠i̦̫̇̇̓̇͋͆̈́͂t͔̼̦̩̣̻͚̝̎̑ͬ̕h͙̝̜͈̊̂ͭ̊͗̕͜͜ ̵̨̡̫̫̩̮̮̰̿͋͒ͧͣ͂̾a̶͓̹̤͔̮̭̳ͯ̄̓͑͊̽n̶͚͇̓ͧͣ͑̎̚y̴̭̥͙̞̝̩ͧ̑͊͟t̵̨̩̖̄̐ͩͥ͂ͫh̷͊ͯ͏̝̘̟̦ͅï̡͓̓ͬͣͪ̆ͦ͆̕͞n̷̜̝͙̤̫̊̐g̎͂̑͗̽͑ͩ̊҉̮͎̱̞̠͈̮͚?̴̱̝̪̭̦͆̽̅ͩ͞ ̵̛̗̱͈͕̭͍͔͐̄ͪ͐̑ͮ͆I̳̬̪͈̪͎̠͖͒ͫ͒͡ ̵̡̹̄̈́ͪ̈́̄ͦ̅d̴̸̦̙̻͂̒ͧ̆ͬ̓̃̌͘o̢̗̜̔ͭ̆̔̈ͪ͗͝n͖̳̓̈͗̃̇ͭ̋͆̄͡ͅ'̅ͥ͒҉̶̭̠͕̠͚͞t͎͇̏̓ͨ̂ ̒̓̂ͩ̃̈̑͏̯̱̻ͅn̵̬͖͚ͬͪͣ̊͑ͤe̷͇̪̦̺̲͖̯̍͌̑̋ͭ̏ͦ͑ͬë̷̤͉̬͎̦͇ͦ̎ͩd͇̘̠̎̐͟͞ͅ ̛̉ͧͬ҉̱̻̦̠̪͇̞t̨͕̝̐̒ͭ̈́͠o͇̮̹̐̉̓̃̽̇ͮͥͥ ̴͊̈́͛ͦ̔͠͏͉̞͔̥̼t͉͓̝̮͌ͩ̌ͭ̊̽͑͊o̳͔̱̰͉̪̙̦ͩ̾̋̾ͥͪ̿̓͢ ̺̯̣̝̥ͮ̐̃̍̓̕aͤͤ́̏҉͖͉̙ͅn̺̟̣̟̱̲̐͐ͫ̅̋̑ͫ͛y̴̻̜̟͔̥̤̰̿̿t͓͎͎͓͍̪̬̗̾̃̒ͥ͂h̡̝͈̻̟̯͐̈̒ͩ̇̑͡i̴̴̒ͣ̓ͯ͏͔̫̙̪̝n͖̟̙̪̔̇ͨ͊ͪ͌ͮ̿ͨ͜g̶̤̠̼͖̭͖̽ͦͮ͟͡ͅͅ ̶̵̙͎͚͇̯̦̪ͧ͌ͣf̴̦̺̘̫̯͓̦͉̈́̓̑o̭̗̲̐r͇̦̱̓̐͌̊ͬͪ̚ͅ ̴͕͎̟̣͕̾̾a̶ͪ̊ͥͥ̓ͤ̔ͫ̕͏̞̝̜̳͚̞͙ ̶̦͎̣͇͇̘ͤ̂̇w͂́̊̌̊̎̊ͯ͏̨͉̫̩͈̪͕̠̟̞͘h̢̨̰̠͓̮ͮ͋ͩi͎̮̳͖͕̳̖̭̓̈l̨͚̜̗̤̦̪̫̓͑e̶̶͎͓̘ͧ ̢̛ͫͦͤ̌͂͛͂̀͏̮̥̳̙̟̹̥͔w͔̝̳̞̦̾ͧ͂ͨ͊̃i̼͇̝ͭẗ̵͔͙͇̦̹̋̂̏̃͋͋̄͟ȟ̸̛͈̲̱͕̗̬̥͆̀͗͛̚ ̥̂̀ͮͪ̓̚t̷͔͒͂̀̑̃̎ͅh͎̲̥̪̬̥̣̼͑̓͐̋̎͢e̠̗͉̝̱ͣ̀͝ ̹̝̠̗͎̭̦͛̅ͥ̾̆͗ͪ̉S̙̭̦̑̿̔̈́t̨͉͇͍̻͓̗̪̞͐ͨ̅̓͝ä̢̦͓̥̠͔̤̜̯̺́̋̾̎̿ͧ͊ͫr̷͕͍͕̜̠̖̖̉ͪ̓́́ͫ̏ͮ ̫̥͌́ͨͪ̏̉ͬ̓S̵̡̰̪̈́͒͌́h͇͎̤̞̱̼̭͓̼̋ͩ̒ͪ̃̏ȋ̷̙͉̤͍̤̝̥͟t̡̞͍̙̍̋̔̈́̀͟͞s̷̠̲͙ͨ͂ͭͦ͑͒ͪ̓ͯ̕͝ ̧̰̼̝̑͗ͦ̎o̯̹̜̲͓͇͎͑͋͛͢f̴̶̭͚̦̤̋̿̐ͤ͋̆f̯̻̙̲̦̏̓ͨ̆̀̕ ̨̪̟̹͓̙̹̰̔ͫ͗͂ͩ͆̈́͝d̸̡̼̳̲̺̱̰͚̚̕o̖̙̙̺͉̝ͧ͋ͦͨį͈̫̪̠̙͙̒̋̂͢n̟̗̹̯͇̲̬ͥ̄͆̒͂̈́̅͘g̛̭̱̻̠̏ͦ͐͆̎͐̅͗̕ ͫͪͧ̇͝͏̤̯̥̩͈͔w̴̆̔͗͂͏͕̪̮͜h̛̳̟̾̇͋ă̵̛͍͍̘̦̦̱ͩ̍̍ͣ͂ͥ̉̿͞t̮̯̮̩̄̌̃̉͆̑ȩ̙̗̻̃ͬ͒̆̌̔̄͒v̶̧̟̠̦̺̘̙̱̋ͩ̒̇ͬ̃̚e̶̪̫͒ͬ̒ͬ͠͞r̲͇̼̫̰̅ͭ͋͐̾̐̊͌͢.̮̭̩̩̤̰̜̺ͨͮͫ̕͟”

“That'd be great, thanks. Would you be okay with helpkng make sure the boys don't do anything stupid while I'm dealing with Dream.”

“O͍̥͍̳̙͒͐̈́̀k̡̫͉̝̬̜̦̺͉̺̓̌́̐̽̔͌ͯ̕a̬̦̹͚͓͛ͥ̔ͬ̈́͘y̵̫͓͕͓̤͉ͤ̏̍̑,ͩ̈́͏̵̗̹̟̟̝̦̜̲̺͠ ̵̰̹͖͇̀ͮͧ̚͘t͖͖̟̳̺̼̣͋̔͆͝ẖ̭͚̪̥͙̘͛̾̿ͯͬͣͭ̇a̡̗̦̺̙̮̫̰ͦ̽̾̑͋͌ṫ̨̢̨̜̗̼̞͖̬̺̙́ͤ̋̽ͨ̑͆'̮̬̻̫̫̙̬̈ͥͩ̽͗̕͘s̷͓̫̤ͬ̊̉ͨ̌͟͝ ̪̥̯͇͐̊͝fͮ͆̆͌ͥ͗ͤ̚͏̢͓͈̖̭̮ḯ̯͐n̴̜̖͆ͫͥę̡̪̯̤̯̪̘͊̋̔̊ͧͥ.̸̝̱̙̲̠̰̦̂̎͌̀̌͛͐̚͝ ̶͓̫̠̙͓̘̭̖͐͆A̴͙̤͔̣̭ͦ̅ͨ̌ͣ̅̎͒͋n̸͎̫̠͔̠͆̍͛͐y̵͇̺̔ͯ͑̎̏̕͠t̮͍͉̜͕͉̦̹̗̊͛̑h̷̞͕̫̜̪͈̺̺ͭ̽̍ͤ̐͡ḯ̘̩̆͞ͅn̓̽͒ͩ̓̎҉̢̩͈g̴̗̠̯͍͓̟̺̖͙͂ͬ̉̃̔ ̃̔͢҉̹̣͈͚̩e̸̺̩̟̻̯͇͒͢l̢̡̟̹̤̗̱̿̓ş͔̗͋̄́͑̅͛e͕̟̣̟̣͍̅̑ͭͭ̍?̶̡̰̳̔͊͋̈͐͒̈͢”

“No, that's all.”

“K̨̧̞͖̩̊̏ͤ̅ͥ̄̉̿.̖̥̬͈̪͌ͮ̅͋”

“Thanks again.”

“E̜̾̌ͪ̈́͒ͮ͗̕h̶̤̗̝͚ͯͭ̌́̓,̡̢̞̼̤̾̔ͩ͞ ̷̨̞̜̙͖͚͖̦̆ͩ̂ͤ͑͂̄̐i̧̡ͭ̌̒͒҉̻̟̟̮͇ţ̲̱̌ͣͦ̄ͪͩ̔̂͑'̩͚̼͔̽̅̆̉͌ͯ̕͜s̨̤̳̍ͣͨͬ̄̅ ̻̯̻̬͇͙͚̥͐̓̐ͣ̕͝ͅñ͏̵̳̯̯͎̱͖̳͎̜o̳̞̰̳̱̜͛ͫț̳̜͖̲̳̌ͯͭ̍͘͞h̵̟̃̒͂̓ͮi͕̜̖̥̮ͨ̃ͣ͌͗͛͘n̩͇̔͂͝ğ̶͇̟͍̃̇̄͝.̭͍̜͇̮̙̓̈͑͆̄ͥ͒̚͢”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading.
> 
> Ik this is shorter than usual, it would have been longer, but this felt like a good place to leave off before the next chapter.
> 
> I can't believe I forgot to go back and make sure this was in the last chapter but: Dream knew that the book he was reading was part of a series, he just didn't feel like looking for the rest of it since he was only reading that due to how short it was. I meant to go back and make sure that was there, sorry.
> 
> Anyways, I'm off to go drink some more energy drinks before continuing on. And happy Valentines day ig? If it's still Valentine's wherever you are?
> 
> Have a creative day. Remember that romance is not the most important thing in the world and that you are valid ^-^🍊


	42. A Card

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Error doesn't know what these absolute children are doing and at this point he's too confused to try figure it out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. I am awkward that this is coming out a little late. I hope that's okay.
> 
> Remember to take care of yourself ^-^🍊

Dream was... winning.

**********

In total it took almost a full hour to finish redressing Dream’s half-healed wounds. A number of them had reopened and had required Nightmare to use healing magic on them. It had set his brother’s recovery back, but it was a lot better than it could have been.

The long and arduous task was worth it in the end though. His twin was safe. The grateful look on Dream’s face was one he hadn’t seen in centuries and one he had never expected to see again. When he saw it he had been shocked, the earnest expression took him off guard. Thank goodness none of his boys were around to see him or else they’d tease him to no end.

“Thank you Wispy. I’m sorry for causing you so much trouble.”

“No, it’s okay, Dream. You got scared and ran to try protect yourself. Don’t apologise for merely trying to stay safe.”

“Oh, okay. ...Can I have a hug please?”

Nightmare just couldn’t say no to his little brother when he was being so sweet.

“Of course.”

**********

Error was currently attempting to figure out what the fuck Nightmare’s boys were playing. They had gotten their hands on a pack of cards and what had started out as a simple game of ‘Go Fish’ had evolved into something incredibly convoluted.

“King of Spades.”

“Nope.”

“Hah, no.”

“C’mon Dust, please tell me you have it.”

“Sorry bud.”

“Fffffrick, urgh.”

Error watched as Cross then proceeded to give everyone else a card and take six more from the pile before setting down a few different cards that all seemed to be spades. Next it skipped over Dust to Horror for his turn.

“Ha, King of Hearts. Now give me all your royal cards.”

With a few grumbles the cards were handed over.

“Great, now Two of Diamo- hey Boss.”

Turning around, Error saw Nightmare standing in the doorway to the kitchen. From the look on his face this scene was a common occurrence. Error greeted his friend with a nod as he moved away from his spot at the counter.

“Ḧ̛̤̖̜͍͍͓͈̻́̈̏̉̃͒́ȇ̛̱̗̜̙̃̎ͣ͘ͅy̨͎͓͚͈̹̟̔ͮ ͌͐̽͆͏̜͖̩̠̲̥̼N͔̤̘̪͔͆ͮ͝ͅiͭ̾͒̃̽͒͏̟͇̻͉͖̞̪͟͞g̷͙͗͑͠h̺͚̩̯̆͒͗͐̔͒́̾͞͞t̟̗ͫ̄,͈̗͍̹̿̋͑̄ ̶̲̮͉̘̻̪̪̇̃̿h͂ͭͩ̄ͧ́ͪ͋͏̧̲̺͔͚ò̱̙̩͓̟͞w̷͉̖̯̲͉̆ͬ̓ͫ̈́̔ͥ͗̽’̮̤͔̞̔͋ͥͤ̑̓͑ͧ͋ḏ̦͉͉̀͝ ̷̥̩͎̭̻̿̓͊̍͘i̛̤̟̳̠͑̂̏̿̀̄̋t͖͉̙̍̎̀ͅ ̸̠͛ͅg̡͖̻͕̭̣ͯͩͯ͘o̥̘̲̝͋̃͌͝ͅ?̍ͬ̈̒͏̷̴̪̭̫̯̞͎ͅ”

“Hello. Everything actually went pretty smoothly all things considered. A few of his wounds have reopened, but nothing worse than that.”

“T̯̉̎͡ͅh̶͚͉̻̩͚͚͙͉ͫ̓̈́̏ͩͪͤ͠a̶̒̑͏̗̜̪ṱ̦͓͆̾͆ͫͭ͟’̷͍̣̞ͥ͊̏̐͠s̘̝̪̫̣͙̯͓ͥͧ͛ͪ́̈ ̧ͣͪ͋͏͈͚̳̯͔̞g̸̦̲̈́ͮͮ̚o̡̙͖̗̭̓̍̎͌̒͑̔ͦọ̣͖͉͖̞̜͊ͫ̂̌ͦ̋̚ͅd͕̹̣̲̳̈́̐͘͟.” 

“Any of you want to go see him now that I’m done with him?”

A moment passed before Killer spoke up.

“I think we’ll head in after finishing this round.”

“Okay then. I have a few things that I need to get done. Don’t burn the castle down while I’m gone.”

“Yeah yeah, we’ll be fine that only happened once and it didn’t get further than the kitchen.”

“Because I stepped in and saved your sorry behinds. Anyway I’ll be back soon.”

With that Nightmare left Error alone with the four idiots again. Oh well, they hadn’t done anything  _ too _ bad so far, he could survive another hour with them.

A few confusing minutes later, Killer had stolen a win at the last second when he put down an Ace of Spades? He still had no idea how that had worked, but at this point he knew better than to try puzzling it out. They piled up the deck and made their way into the living room to the couch where the younger twin was.

**********

“Hey Dream, you wanna play cards with us?”

Dream looked up to see the crying one standing next to the couch.His sudden appearance had surprised Dream. Maybe he shouldn’t have had his eyes closed, but it didn’t matter now. Deciding that playing a card game with his brother’s friends might be fun, he hesitantly nodded his head.

Silently, the one who had asked him the question turned back to the others and they seemed to come to some kind of a wordless agreement on… something. Once they all seemed to be satisfied with whatever they had agreed to they looked back around to him

“Alright, why don’t you come down here and we’ll teach you how to play ‘King of Hearts’?”

“Um, okay.”

Sliding gently off the couch and onto the floor, the guardian looked back up to the other skeletons.

“So how do you play?”

At his question, the one with the black tears (who Dream had now decided to call John, if only because it seemed such a silly name to give him) launched into an explanation.

“Right. So the rules are pretty simple. You start with seven cards each, a starting card and a pile of cards to draw from. Basically, you’re trying to get rid of all your cards. To get rid of your cards, you put them down on top of the start card or the face up pile. However, you can only put a card down if it’s from the same suit or is the same number.

“To get rid of more cards at once you can put down multiple of the same number, so long as the bottom card matches the number or suit of the card below it, or if you have cards from the same suit in a row, once again only so long as the bottom card matches the number or suit of the card below it.

“There are special cards as well. If you put down a two, you can make the next player take two, unless they have another two to pass it along to the next player and make that player have to take another two. The King of Hearts can make the next player take five cards, but can be passed along like the twos, but it can also be cancelled out by the Five of Hearts. Sevens reverse, Jacks jump a player and Aces can be used to change the suit to whatever you want.

“Got that?”

Dream was reeling from the sudden barrage of information. He was  _ pretty _ sure he understood most of what he had been told, but jeese, that was a lot all at once. Still, he gave a nod seeing as if he got confused he could always ask.

“Great, let’s get this show on the road!”

**********

A few rounds later, it became obvious that Dream was surprisingly good at this game. The gang let out a cry as the last of them fell to the guardian's quality strategizing for the third time in a row before vowing vengeance in the next round.

Dream laughed along with them as the cards were dealt out and was glad to have made new friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading.
> 
> I drank my two Monsters, but the thing is I didn't finish drinking them until two. But then my hands were too shakey, so I decided to wait a little until they were a bit less shakey. And THEN my gosh drank tablet lagged so bad while I was trying to write this chapter (presumably due to how long the doc had gotten) that I ended up giving up and writing on the laptop instead and by that stage it was 02:40. Sorry, I kinda rambled there, but that's why this is out so late.
> 
> (NGL that paragraph is mostly because I wanted to complain about my tablet lagging while I'm trying to write lol)
> 
> Fun Fact:  
> There was a trading route between Africa (I don't remember where specifically) and Galway (I think) over a thousand years ago and that's how red head genes spread to Africa (sorry I have no clue how to phrase that). It's also why over around Galway there's like a 1 in 10,000 chance of their baby being born black (which, while kinda funny, would probably not go down well with the father). Source: My parents over dinner a few days ago ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> Oh, I also kinda want to write an alternate timeline(?) for this fic because I keep feeling tempted to make Dream act more violent/sadistic/dark than what would be in character for the smol bean. So to stop it from spreading into my boi I might do that if you think it's a good idea.
> 
> Jeese, sorry for all the rambling.
> 
> Have a remarkable day. Remember not to do what my dumbass did and drink no more than about two Monsters in a day ^-^🍊


	43. A Dinner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream is the superior King of Hearts player.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoy this chapter. Ik it's a little later than usual again. Tbh I started late and then the chapter ended up being long than I expected (which at this point I should expect, but still). Next chapter might not come out tmrw bc I want to get the side fic finished first. I'll do my best to get it out, but no promises.
> 
> Also thank you so much for 18 bookmarks, 170+ kudos, 4000+ hits and all your amazing comments. Thank you all so so much. I am genuinely surprised that anyone liked this so your support means the world to me :D
> 
> Remember to take care of yourselves ^-^🍊

Horror was… enjoying.

**********

“Last card!”

“C’mon John, you gotta avenge us! Don’t let this be the end!”

“Pfft- I still can’t believe Dream named him  _ John _ of all things-”

“Shh the both of you, don’t distract Killer. This could be our chance to finally end this Dream’s winning streak, don’t mess this up.”

Unfortunately for the three onlookers who had collectively decided to sit out this round and let their best go up against the guardian (they had actually decided to all band together, but ended up just getting Killer to do all the work), their best had nothing.

“I’m sorry, but…”

Drawing a card from the pile, Dream slapped down his final card. They had gotten to this point a few times during the match, but it had never been resolved due to neither side having the right card or only having a special card left. The suspense only made the victory sweeter for the younger guardian as he celebrated with himself.

Behind them, Error and Nightmare chuckled at the small bit of chaos before them. Nightmare had arrived back in time to grab a cup of tea and watch this round play out. Every once in a while the two oldest skeletons would speak up from their conversation and make a comment that left the idios in front of them in stitches.

“Alright, it’s starting to get late. I’m going to go make some spaghetti for dinner. I’ll call you when it’s ready.”

“Wait Horror, what’s spaghetti?”

“You poor poor child. Spaghetti is noodles with a good tomato sauce and some meat if we happen to have any.”

“That sounds yummy.”

“It is. You’re gonna love it.”

Dream was a little unsure of what to do next. He knew what he wanted to ask, but didn’t know if it would be okay. His inner conflict must have shown on his face as Horror was quick to add, “But it’s okay if you don’t, don’t worry about that, okay?”

“No, I’m not worried about that! ...Umm…”

“What is it kid?”

“Uh… I was wondering if maybe Icouldpleasecookwithyouifthat’salrightwithyo-”

“Slow down there. Could you say that again for me.”

“I was wondering if I could help you cook?! It just sounds interesting and I really wanna see how you do it please!”

“Calm down Dream. It’s fine, you can help me cook, don’t worry about it kiddo.”

“Really?!?!”

“Really. Now come on, let’s go make some spaghetti.”

Jumping off the floor a little faster than he probably should have done, he raced over to the kitchen, excited to make something. Especially since it was something he had never heard of before. Moving from one foot to the other in anticipation, he waited for Horror to actually get to the kitchen.

“You ready?”

“Yup!”

“Okay, well then the first thing we need to do is gather together all our ingredients and equipment. I’ll tell you what we need and where to get it and then you bring it back to the counter. That cool with you?”

Nodding enthusiastically, Dream practically vibrated where he stood.

“Great. First we need spaghetti noodles. They’re in the pantry unit, that’s the long looking cupboard with the sideways handles.”

“Okay!”

It wasn’t long before the two skeletons had gotten all the stuff they needed set out on the counter. Dream was a little tired from running around getting everything, but now they were getting to the fun stuff. They were actually going to make the food!

They had never made food like this back home. He and his twin had pretty much just eaten apples from the nearby orchard and the occasional gift from the  liars villagers. This new ‘cooking’ thing looked so cool in comparison with what they did for food before.

“Now first we need to get the kettle boiling and the tin of chopped tomatoes opened. I’ll get the kettle on while you use the can opener to open the tin.”

**********

About an hour and half later Horror was sending Dream out to call the others while he dished up dinner. By time they had gotten back from washing their hands dinner was already out on the table.

“Good job Dream, it looks _ good enough to eat _ .”

“Nice one.”

“Thank you, thank you. I’ll be here all week.”

“You’re all idiots, the lot of you.”

“Don’t be a meanie brother.”

“Yeah, what Dream said.”

“Says the one who was calling Killer a fartface a minute ago.”

“That was different. He put down a King of Hearts and a bunch of twos, he deserved it.”

Dream zoned out a little as the gang started talking about things he wasn’t there for. Once everyone was at the dinner table the banter quietened down as they tucked in. Dream was a little apprehensive about this new food and ended up just poking at it.

“Go on brother, try some of what you made. It’s not going to bite.” His brother’s voice shook him out of his haze.

“What?”

“I said to go on and try some of the food you made.”

“O-...okay Wispy.”

Slowly twisting some of the noodles onto his fork and scooping up a little of the sauce, the younger guardian hesitantly took his first bite of the spaghetti. His eyes lit up.

“This is really yummy!”

From the other side of the table Horror spoke up. “See. I knew you’d like it.”

**********

Later that night, Horror and Dust were carrying a sleeping Dream back to his room. After dinner they had gone back to playing card games, but when it got to around midnight the smaller guardian had fallen asleep. To prevent Dream from ending up in a position that could put strain on his injuries, Nightmare sent the two monsters to bring his twin back to his bed.

Earlier that evening they had also come to an agreement with the positive guardian that instead of chancing him running away and injuring himself again, someone would stay with Dream in his room to explain things to him once he woke up. Luckily for Horror it had been Dust who had drawn the short straw.

“Pfft- you look ridiculous holding Dream like that.”

“Shut up  _ Mellow _ .”

“Heh no.”

“This is bullying.”

“That’s right, I’ll bully the socks off of you.”

“Stars above -pfft- that sounded so stupid.”

“Now I’m the one being bullied.”

“No I’m not.”

“You heard it here first folks; Horror is a bully.”

“ You are so annoying.”

“You got it.”

“I’d hit you, but my hands are full of person.”

“Not just any person, but the person who beat you, what was it four times.”

“I’d make you carry Dream just so I could smack your smartass for that comment except you’d probably drop him on his head within the first five seconds.”

“Aw so you care about Dream now, isn’t that adorable.”

“No I don’t.”

“Yes you do.”

“You have no evidence.”

“But I do. You let him in the kitchen while you were cooking.”

“Says you.”

“And four other people who saw it happen.”

“I-Okay your right, but you shouldn’t say it.”

“You said I was right. Therefore you care about Dream. No take backs.”

“In my defense, he reminds me of Papyrus. If Papyrus had more trauma that is”

“Okay fair. To be honest it was kinda adorable seeing Dream all excited to make spaghetti. It was just like a smaller Paps.”

“Exactly.” Dust opened the door to the bed room and held it for Horror. “His eyes lit up the exact same way Papyrus’ would when we were putting the noodles in the pot, I swear.”

“How dare he look so cute and wholesome.”

“Right? Anyway I’m gonna head back down to the living room. I’ll tell you tomorrow if anything happens.”

“Sounds good. See ya in the morning then.”

“See ya.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading.
> 
> I vaguely feel like I had some random fact to mention here, but whatever it is I can't remember. Either way the side story should be out within the next two dayseparate if every thing goes to plan.
> 
> I just remembered that it was a theory I came up with earlier today, but I'm not arsed to type it out rn. Ig I'll just put it at the end of the next chapter then.
> 
> Someone in the comments pointed out that I had accidentally chapter 34 as chapter 4. I've fixed it now. Thank you to the person who pointed that out, I can't believe I missed that.
> 
> Dream is a smol traumatized bean and that's on period.
> 
> Have a mentally stable day. Remember that your interests are always valid and that no one is allwed to put you down for them or I'll stomp on their spine ^-^🍊


	44. A Friend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream awakes disoriented.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you like the new chapter. (Yes I am aware the summary isn't the best shh) Sorry it took so long for me to get back too this. I kept meaning to, but at the same time I kept putting off the side fic and I wanted to get that finished first. On the bright side the side fic is actually out now.
> 
> Remember to take care of yourself ^-^🍊

Dream was… shaken.

**********

Dream woke with a start, jolting upright. He winced and laid back down gently, vision blurring slightly as pain shot through his right side. ‘Okay, let’s not do that again.’ Closing his eyes, he tried to figure out what had just happened.

‘Alright, what’s the last thing I remember happening? I was… fudge, what was it? Oh, that’s right I was in Haventale after that fight with… Anyway! That fight must be why my side hurts. I probably took a hit harder than I realised  if only you hadn’t been so careless . I was in the middle of talking to their Papyrus when I felt Him stirring up trouble again. Stars, why does he insist on starting again so soon. I made a portal and stepped through, then… I woke up? No, that doesn’t make any sense. What can’t I remember? And how did I even wake up? I haven’t slept in ages. Ugh! Whelp, there’s only one way to find out more.’

Dream opened his eyes again, slowly this time. Squinting slightly, he looked around. At first all he could work out were shapes as his eyes adjusted to the light streaming in from the window. ‘Why would someone leave the curtains open?’

The next things he managed to make out were the soney looking walls, a few pieces of furniture and what seemed to be a person sitting in a chair. The young guardian decided that the risk that the stranger wasn’t friendly was worth it if he could find out what was going on.  Mother told you not to be so trusting of strangers.

“Excuse me?” He called out as loud as he dared, not wanting to irritate the other.

Unfortunately he wasn’t loud enough and the other didn’t even stir. He left it a few more seconds before calling out again.  You’re only being a nuisance. Nothing again. Blinking rapidly to try get them to focus properly, Dream gasped. It couldn’t be, could it?!

“Sans! Is that really you?!”

At the sudden increase in volume, the skeleton startled awake. Beside the other were a few attacks, his eyes darting around the room in search of a threat. The smaller skeleton was initially confused by this, but then remembered that the same thing had happened the last time he’d  stupidly woken his friend up too suddenly.

“Wha- Oh you’re awake.”

“You’re still alive?!”

“What are you on about?”

“I thought you were  _ dead _ . I saw you  _ die! _ But you’re here, so you can’t be dead!”

“I… Okay, I have no clue what’s going on. Can you wait a second while I go get someone?”

“A-alright.”

“Grand, I’ll be back in a minute.”

With that there was a small popping noise and Dream was left alone in the room.

**********

Dream was still reeling from seeing his best friend alive again. While he waited for Sans to return he had managed to get up. It had been a bit of a struggle, but as long as he didn’t move too quickly all he had to deal with was a dull ache.

He was looking around his room for clues as to which AU he had ended up in  Mother taught you better than to invade others’ privacy when someone knocked on the door. “Who is it?” He called out, moving away for the wardrobe he had been inspecting.

“It’s just me and the person I went to get.”

“Come in!”

Sans came in the door, but before he could do anything else he was hugged tightly by Dream.

“I thought I’d lost you.”

“Hey, Dream. Can you let go for a second? I need to ask you something.”

“Okay.”

The positive guardian backed away a little, his head tilted to the side in confusion.

“What is it?”

“I need you to tell me the last thing you remember.”

“O-kay? I was in Haventale after a fight when I felt him at it again, so I made a portal to stop it and then I woke up here.”

“One more question, okay, what’s the last big thing to happen in the Multiverse?”

“I-um… I think it was a-after you… you died… err, remember how I told you I wasn’t supposed to be sad or something bad w-would happen?”

“Uh, sure?”

“W-well after you… you know… I didn’t handle it very well… I-I think people have started calling it the  Dead Zone . But-but your okay now so everything’s fine!”

“Oh shoot. Okay, Dream?”

“Yes Sans? What is it?”

“Look at your arm for me, please.”

“Why do you want me to look at my arm?”

“Just-just do it please.”

Pulling up the pyjama’s sleeve, he saw an intricate spider web of half healed cracked running all the way up along his arm. Every so often he spotted a missing fragment. There was even a clear line from where his ulna had been snapped and reset.  You deserve this.

“Wh-what? When did this happen?”

“Dream, future you had an accident and you got stuck in his body for the moment. I’m sorry, but I’m not the Sans you knew. I go by Dust.”

“But you have to be! I’ve never seen another AU like his!”

“You’re in the future Dream. My AU hadn’t been made yet.”

“oh”

“But there is something else good that’s happened.”

“what is it”

“You and Boss are on better terms again.”

“who are you talking about”

A goopy black figure appeared from behind the door. There were what looked like tentacles sticking out from behind his back, tracing slow, meaningless patterns in the air.

“Hello brother.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading.
> 
> I hope that was okay, I'm a little out of practice with writing for this fic. Not that I haven't been thinking of what to do with it, more loosing track of where I was going with the plots momentum.
> 
> I'll do my best to avoid disappearing like that again though!
> 
> Ugh, I have so many different ideas for UT AUs running around my head now. In other news, I've gotten pretty invested in the darker version of this AU so I'll probably work on that whenever I finish this.
> 
> Anyway, I said I'd tell you a theory I came up with last chapter, didn't I? Well basically my theory is that there is a reason why Sans doesn't fight you outside of the Genocide runs, even on runs where you only spare one monster. My theory is that Sans used to fight back. Not during your stint as the master of time, but when Fowey was messing around with the timelines. What I think happened was that when Sans fought back, even though he always managed to defeat Flowey when they fought, the timeline would always reset and Flowey would find a new way to hurt people before Sans could stop him. This went o for so long that Sans basically developed a learned helplessness (Here's a short video outlining what learned helplessness is; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87Vuqvp2V7w I couldn't find the specific one I was looking for, but this is close enough. I do recommend you look at this more when you get the chance though) because no matter what he did it never truly changed the outcome. By the time the human makes it's way into the Underground Sans has thoroughly given up on trying to do anything about his situation, which isn't helped by his depression (here's a video if you want to learn more about that; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8hGMFQPBDw). In almost every route he let's you past because he knows that you'll just reset everything in the end anyway. Except on the Genocide run he checks his machine before going to meet you in the Judgement Hall and he sees that if he lets you keep going that something terrible will happen to the timeline, so he goes out to fight you to try and stop whatever is going to happen from happening. (Chara hopped up on your LV erasing the timeline). This time he truly 'can't afford not to care anymore'.
> 
> I hope that made sense. Of course you could imagine a Horrortale AU where after 7 years he fully stops believing that the resets going to happen and makes peace with it. Then BAM! Frisk decides to reset and Horror's forced to try act like he used to before everything went to shit. Sorry, I just like that idea and I can't remember seeing it anywhere before. I also have an idea for an alternate Dusttale, where instead of going insane, Sans just utterly gives up and out side of his script just doesn't do or feel anything. Then one day Chara gets bored of the continuous Genocide runs with no change and decides to let Frisk do a Pacifist run and Sans just doesn't react. He just goes through the barely remembered script and goes back down into the Underground and doesn't do a thing. Doesn't react to anything. He's just completely dissociated(?) from reality. Idk, just an idea.
> 
> Sorry for the long note, my brain just decided to start half functioning for a bit. In other news, I got bored and tried straight ketchup a while ago and it's actually not that bad?
> 
> Have a productive day. Remember that things can be okay ^-^🍊


	45. A Curiousness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dream asks questions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoy this chapter. Sorry again for the late upload, this chapter was fighting me until this evening when I suddenly got a boost of motivation and ended up writing a longer than usual chapter.
> 
> Man, I still suck at summaries lol
> 
> Remember to take care of yourself ^-^🍊

Dream was… intrigued.

**********

Deam recoiled fro the goopy version of what looked like his brother, stumbling back until his back hit the wall. Trying to force as many positive emotions as possible, he attempted to call forth his staff.

Nothing happened.

Phalanges scrawled around on the floor as the smaller guardian never looked away.’C’mon there has to be _something_ around here _somewhere_.’ He sped up when they tried to approach him.

“What do you want with me?” He kept his tone steady. A few forced thoughts of optimism help keep any negatives down far enough for the time being.

“We don’t want anything with you,” Nightmare spoke again, the other’s voice causing him to wrestle back down undesirable emotions, “Dust was telling the truth. Future you got in an accident and you ended up in his body. Nobody here wants to hurt you.”

Dream looked up into his brother’s foreign face looking for any hint that the other might be lying. He couldn’t find anything, but the again his brother’s face was much harder to read than before everything happened

‘I can’t use my magic, I’m injured and he has a friend with him, there’s no way I can fight him like this.’

“Trust me on this, I mean you no harm.”

Dream was still skeptical, but ‘What other choice do I have. At least for the moment I’m going to have to trust him. He does seem to be acting different though. Much less rude and violent than usual, so that seems promising. Okay then-’

“D-do you promise? Do you promise that that’s what going on and that you aren’t lying to me?”

“I promise I’m telling the truth.”

“Pinky promise?”

He felt a little childish, but he had yet to see his brother break one. The thought gave him a little hope that his future really would be different to what he was used to.

“Pinky swear, I swear.” “Pinky swear, I swear.”

“Are you feeling better now?”

“Yes thank you!”

They were on their way out the door when Dream turned back to Dust.

“C-could I maybe have another hug, please?”

**********

Cross, Killer and Horror had gathered in the kitchen for breakfast. Okay, it was mostly so they could actually meet Dream before anything went wrong, but in their defense every younger version Dream they’d met so far had been adorable.

“I wonder what Dream’s gonna be like today.”

“Hopefully not another runner, though Dust did seem kinda panicky when he popped in here.”

“Yeah, there’s a decent chance he’s still from the statue part of his life as well. I mean wasn’t he supposed to have been stuck in there for ages?”

“Yeah.”

“Whelp, sounds like we’re about to find out.”

“Heck yeah.”

**********

Dust was honestly surprised at how much Dream was clinging to him. He seemed to have some bad memories attached to someone who looked exactly like him so it didn’t really make much sense to him, but whatever. Once the guardian had calmed down he started bombarding him with questions.

“Is there anyone else here?”

“Why can’t I use my magic?”

“How big is the castle?”

“Which AU is this?”

“How hard is it to control the tentacles?”

Well they weren’t _all_ directed at him, but the majority of them were. He was glad when he noticed that they were nearly at the living room. Soon he’ll be able to share question answering duty with the others.

Letting go of Dream’s hand, he turned around to face him. Nightmare would probably have been the one to do this, but his boss had decided that now he was no longer needed he could go back to doing whatever it was before Dust disturbed him.

“Okay, the other members of the group are behind the door, alright?”

“Mhmm.”

“I’m just giving you a little warning that they might look a bit scary.”

“They can’t be that scary, I saw a Zombietale once and they can’t be scarier than that. It took me a whole fifty seconds to calm back down after seeing that!”

“Alright then.”

He pushed open the door to reveal the gang sitting vaguely around the couch.

“Hey there, we were beginning to wonder if you got lost.”

“Oh shut up _John_.”

“Wait I recognise you! You’re the guy with the knife who hangs around my brother!”

“Huh? You’re from after I joined Nightmare?”

“Yeah I’ve been seeing you follow him around for a few months now. You have a pretty good aim so it’d be kinda hard to miss.”

“Oh, those were the very early days, weren’t they?”

“It’d have had to have been early days, my AU apparently didn’t even exist at that point.”

“Huh.”

“Ooh, I always wondered, why are you alway crying black stuff?”

“Some bad things happened and now I’m stuck with it.”

Dust left the young skeleton to pester the others while he got some breakfast together. The gang probably hadn’t had any breakfast yet, so he figured he might as well put something together for everyone.

Taking out a pack of rashers and a sliced pan. Some rashers and toast would be nice and after everything that had been happening recently they all deserved a little treat.

**********

“”Foods ready!”

“Thanks, I completely forgot about that.”

“Horror, Seriously?”

“What’s that smell?”

“Oh yeah, you probably never had this before. It’s rashers and toast.”

“What’s a rasher?”

“Tasty that’s what it is.”

“Oh, okay then!”

“Killer, you’re rubbish at describing things.”

“Hey! Cross that’s me- actually, you’re right nevermind.”

Dust turned away from his friends to the younger Dream who had already sat down at the table. The young guardian was poking at his food with his fork, a look of suspicion on his face. H e walked over and put a hand on the other’s shoulder.

“It’s not gonna bite you yanno.”

“I guess. It’s just- it looks kinda weird…”

“That’s only ‘cause you’ve never seen it before, it tastes nice once you try it.”

“If you say so.”

The look of scepticism had yet to leave the younger’s face.

“Will you try some please?”

A sigh.

“Fine, but you have to sit nex to me.”

“No problemo tiny.”

“Hey! I’m not that short!”

“Sure you’re not.”

“Hmph!”

Once Dust was sitting he picked up one of the rashers, not bothering with his fork, and turned to Dream.

“I’ll eat it at the same time as you, okay?”

“Okay, thank you.”

“Alrighty then. Three, two, one.”

“You were right! These are yummy!”

“Told ya so.”

They were soon joined at the table by the trio, who had soe how ended up talking about whether or not water is wet.

“I told you water is what makes things wet, therefore it is wet.”

“No, water is what makes things wet. It makes things wet by being on stuff. Water can’t be on itself, therefore water is not wet, it can only make other things wet.”

“You’re all idiots, now shut up and eat you’re food.”

“That’s not a very nice thing to say to someone.”

“I’m not very nice.”

“Yes, you are. Now stop talking bad about yourself.”

“I’ve literally killed people. That’s not something most nice people do.”

“You said you were from a place like... my friend was from, which means you only killed people because of that _bitch_ , besides, most Sanses have killed at least once and they’re almost all very nice! You are nice and that’s final! Now eat your breakfast.”

“You know what, I’m too tired to try argue with you. I still think you’re wrong though.”

“No, I am right. No ifs, ands or buts. Now eat!”

“Okay, okay.”

Everything was quiet (well, apart for Dream’s occasional question) for another few minutes as everyone ate.

**********

Dream looked over at Cross for the third time. His ghost was making funny faces again. He bit back a laugh as the floating child made a particularly funny face. This would have been fine except he was in the middle of drinking. Consequently, a whole load of water shot outof the poor skeleon’s nasal cavity.

“Are you alright there?”

“Yeah I’m fine, sorry about that.”

“Okay,” Cross leaned over to Dream, “what’s so funny? You keep looking over here. Do I have something on my face or something?”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bother you, it’s just your ghost keeps making funny faces.”

“What?!”

“Yeah, They ghost child floating behind you… and now they’re flipping me off. How original.”

Dream flipped the ghost off ack. Two could play at that game.

“You- you can see them?”

“Yeah? Why? Oh no, do you not like talking about them?!”

_*He likes to pretend I don’t exist because he’s a fucking PUSSY! Hahaha._

“Hey, don’t be mean to Cross.”

_*I can be mean to Cross if I want to be._

“No, that’s very rude. If you’re always mean to him I can see why he ignores you. If someone was always being mean to mean I wouldn’t want to talk to them either! You ever heard of treating others like you want to be treated?”

_*Yeah, so what? You can’t do anything._

“I’m going to have a word with you after I’m finished eating is what I’m going to do.”

_*Good luck with that._

“You’ll see.”

“Okay, is it just me or did Dream just talk to the wall behind Cross’ shoulder.”

“No Horror, it wasn’t just you.”

“Okay, good to know.”

“Dream, what the hell was that?”

“Cross’ ghost was being mean to him.”

_*I’m still here you know. It’s rude to talk about people like they’re not there._

“You’re right, sorry about that.”

“Okay, this is weird. We can all agree that this is weird, right?”

Vague noises of agreement came from the rest of the table.

“But Dust, it’s not _that_ weird. I mean, didn’t you used to have a ghost? He had one so wouldn’t you have had one too?”

“I guess I did for a while- but that was just a hallucination!”

“Are you sure about that?”

“I- ...think so?”

Dream went back to eating his food. Everyone else looked at him very confused. This version of Dream was… weird.

“Oh, Killer! You said you had a ton of knives, can you tell me how many you have?”

“I’m not sure, but at least like… twenty or somethin’.”

“Wow! That’s so many!”

Dream wished he could have a knife (they looked so cool!), but… he… always said they were too dangerous so he never got one. Shame. But on the bright side, he had never hurt himself with a knife!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading.
> 
> (I tried really hard, but I can't figure out how to make X!Chara's text grey, so could you please just pretend that grey for me? (Unless you can tell me how to change the colour))(Edit: I figured out a different way of dealing with X!Chara's text. Thank God XD)
> 
> For clarification, due to the fact that Dream isn't always tangible he can see ghosts 'n' that kinda thing. Chara never came up before since normally they're asleep bc they think Cross is boring. When they're asleep they basically say in Cross' mind so that's why Dream never thinks about them. Also they're never mentioned in Cross' POV since he completely ignores their existence and refuses to even acknowledge them in his thoughts.
> 
> Okay, a few day ago I had this really awesome dream, okay?! Like it had foreshadowing, a coherent plot, a massive freaking plot twist, the whole shebang! It even ended up with Undertale in it with Dream and Nightmare! I'd tell you what happened, but it was so good that I /need/ to make a fic out of it! Like holy shit, it was absolutely amazing and I can't just deprive the world of it! It had multiple POVs for pete's sake! In a dream!
> 
> I think I had something else to say, but I can't remember what it was lol. Oh and I'm going to do my best to speed up with my uploads. So there's that.
> 
> Have an enlightening day. Remember that you shouldn't take criticism from someone you wouldn't take advice from ^-^🍊

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading. I hope you have a splendifourous day ^-^🍊


End file.
